(WALA) - Thursday, April 11, is Global Meetings Industry Day—an international day of advocacy that will be recognized in Mobile to spotlight how professional meetings and events, such as those brought in to the city by Visit Mobile, provide extraordinary economic value and benefits to both participants and host communities.
Kent "Spike" Blackinton, General Manager of the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel spoke with Fox10 News about the importance of recognizing this day. Spike is the President and a founding member of the Mobile Area Lodging Association (MALA), Mobile Area Lodging Corporation (MALC) as well as the Mobile Marketing Fund. He plays an integral role in the collaboration of innovative tourism to move Mobile towards a new level of hospitality.
➡️Watch the Fox10 News interview!
For every dollar invested in business travel, U.S. companies experience a $5.90 return.1 Attendees to business meetings, trade shows, conferences and conventions help drive our region’s travel economy, while their spending powers many other industries. For participants, these events also spur new ideas and professional growth and form valuable business connections.
The meetings industry generates billions in travel spending and directly supports hundreds of thousands of jobs each year.
In FY 2023, Visit Mobile booked more than 112,000 room nights for future years, a record year once again.
1 Oxford Economics, 2021
