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African American travel planners to meet here

By Danielle Walker

danielle.walker@insidebiz.com

This week, Virginia Beach will host the African American Travel Conference, an association with 2,500 travel planners.

From April 12 to 14, the event will be at the Virginia Beach Convention Center - and this is not your typical humdrum conference featuring speaker after speaker.

AATC offers dinner and entertainment for attendees and city sightseeing tours. In addition, travel planners serving the African American community have 6-minute "speed dating" sessions with those in the industry representing hotels, convention and visitors bureaus, and attractions.

"We are in our 12th year as an organization," said Charlie Presley, chairman and founder of AATC, which is based in Ohio.

"We are exclusively in the group travel market - we are an organization for people that travel in groups of 20 to 40 people." Members plan cruises, tours, reunions, and a host of other travel events, he said.

"The value to Virginia Beach of having AATC, is that you might be talking to one person, but that person can book 20 to 40 people," Presley said.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, Travel Industry Association of America, the African American community travels in group tours twice as often as the population as a whole. AATC works as a liaison between travel planners and those in the industry.

Virginia Beach bid against other cities to host the event, which brings more exposure - and bookings - to the area. Travel planners from at least 20 states will be at the conference, Presley said.

"There's information [on how] to become a better group leader, and the other goal is to learn about Virginia Beach. We'll have speakers talking about the city, and we'll have sightseeing tours," he said. "The reason we do this, is so our members can go out and see Virginia Beach, and go back home to put a tour together and bring out a group."

During the travel conference, travel planners will probably meet and network with 40 businesses, Presley said, going from one 6-minute appointment to the next. There are about 8,000 business appointments planned for the conference.

"Normally what you find is within 36 months, half of the [event planners] will bring a group to the city, since they've already got this year's events planned," Presley said. "Just the people in that room will buy or organize anything between $15 million and $20 million in travel plans."

The expected turnout for the event is 400 people, which includes both travel planners - the buyers - and industry representatives - the sellers.

Virginia Beach was selected to host this year's conference because of its reputation for hospitality.

"When we come to a city for a convention, the cities bid [to host the conference]," Presley said.

"The thing we really look for is hospitality and we were extremely impressed with Virginia Beach. Your area understands that people want to feel welcome and tourism is huge down there. Hospitality is a huge reason why we are there."

Ron Kuhlman, vice president of tourism marketing and sales for the city's CVB, said the conference could benefit tourism at the Beach.

"What it does for the [host city] is to really showcase that destination to a large number of people who are buyers of products," he said. "They are really good experiences for the buyers, but [sellers] can also enthusiastically go out and sell Virginia Beach to their clients.

"The travel industry is unique in that most of our conferences involve marketplaces - and instead of standing around at tables, there are actual appointments that are set up," Kuhlman said.

Kelli Norman, director of tourism marketing and sales for the CVB, explained the wooing process.

"That gives us 6 minutes to intrigue them as to what Virginia Beach has to offer - it's a unique 6 minutes," she said of the one-on-one appointments.

The Virginia Tourism Corporation and Busch Gardens in Williamsburg are two of the main sponsors for the event, along with several local hotels, Norman said. Convention and visitors bureaus from other cities, such as Atlantic City, N.J., and Baltimore, Md., will also have delegates in attendance.

In February 2013, Virginia Beach will host the Bank Travel Conference at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. BTC helps travel industry workers and bank loyalty program directors connect. That conference was held in Baton Rouge, La., this year.

For more information on the African American Travel Conference, go to www.aatconline.com/. nib