|
ONE-ON-ONE - February 2006
by Ed G. Lane
'Kentucky Has Been Handed an Opportunity'
The head of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau talks about the business of promoting Lexington to the world
 |
David Lord
David Lord is president of the Lexington Convention & Visitors Bureau. A native of Beaumont, Texas, Lord studied pre-law at the University of Texas, graduating in 1972. After careers in restaurant management and real estate, he began working at the convention and visitors bureau in Ft. Worth, Texas, in 1980 and later helped establish a new convention and visitors bureau in Austin. Prior to coming to Lexington, Lord served as executive director of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Convention & Visitors Bureau and was senior vice president of the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce for seven years. As president of the Lexington Bureau, Lord manages a full-time staff of 18. The bureau’s primary responsibility is to increase revenue for Lexington by attracting more visitors and conventions. Lord and his wife, Sara, have a son and enjoy camping, fishing and exploring/studying Kentucky history. |
Ed Lane: How long have you served as the president of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau (LCVB) and where were you employed prior to moving to Lexington?
David Lord: I’ve been in Lexington 12 years. I served as the executive director of the Tulsa Convention and Visitors Bureau and senior vice president of the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce. The two organizations were affiliated.
EL: During the last five years how much has the revenue of the LCVB increased?
DL: The annual revenue for LCVB has increased from $2.9 million to $3.7 million.
EL: What factors generate revenue increases?
 DL: The LCVB is funded approximately 95 percent by a tax on hotel rooms. None of the funding comes from local taxpayers unless they’re staying in a Lexington hotel. The LCVB is totally dependent on travelers, whether they are coming here for business or pleasure, attending conventions or horse shows. The economy has a major impact on whether people are traveling or not.
Over the past few years, funding and construction delays on the Lexington Convention Center have had a major impact on Lexington’s ability to host conferences. The bottom line is more visitors and higher room rates directly influence the amount of revenue the LCVB has available to promote tourism.
EL: What was the most difficult issue you had to manage on behalf of the LCVB during the last five years?
 DL: The most difficult issue was the good news/bad news relating to the Lexington Convention Center. Lexington was ultimately able to get the funding necessary from state government to make the final improvements to the convention center. During the period when funding from the state was in jeopardy, the LCVB lost years worth of marketing. This factor has had a negative impact on bookings for larger convention groups in calendar years 2005 and 2006.
EL: Why did the delay in state funding impact bookings?
DL: Meeting planners won’t book a convention facility until after construction is completed. Since there were no guarantees when our convention center would be completed, Lexington was basically caught without a product to market.
EL: Any ballpark estimate regarding how much business the convention center lost?
 DL: It is hard to estimate, because Lexington was going after new business that it did not have. Improvements to the convention center have kept Lexington in the game. It should be noted that 97 other cities, including every city within our driving range, improved their convention facilities or built new ones. The improvements didn’t give Lexington an advantage, it just kept our city as a competitive convention location.
EL: How is the LCVB marketing for new conventions?
DL: We completed a sales audit of our activities about two years ago and developed a plan from that study. The LCVB has increased the number of sales people that are actively marketing Lexington for meetings and conventions. We’ve focused on larger events than in the past. We’ve also established regular citywide sales meetings that are held with everyone who is selling the city. We’ve added representation in Washington, D.C., and will be doing so in Chicago within the year.
EL: What does representation mean?
 DL: For the Washington, D.C., market, we have an individual who is representing Lexington and two other cities that don’t compete with Lexington. Our representative calls on associations and brings people here for familiarization tours. Each of our direct sales people and our representative have established sales goals and they are judged on a quarterly basis on how they are doing. The LCVB has also increased the number of trade shows we are attending and the numbers of sales trips we are making. And we’ve also gone back to school; our staff and every major hotel will be involved in a two-day advanced strategic selling class.
EL: Lexington’s convention base of business in 2004 was about 102,000 occupied room nights. What are your expectations for future increases?
DL: For 2006, we’ve estimated a moderate, 5 percent increase.
EL: Who are some of the LCVB’s key management people?
DL: Meredith Moody is the vice president of research and marketing. Dennis Johnston is the vice president of sales. Lu Ann Pelle manages visitor services and information. Bond Jacobs manages convention services for the groups meeting here.
EL: What is the difference between tourism and conventions?
DL: Tourism refers to all visitors to our market for meetings, conventions and leisure travel.
EL: What attracts leisure travelers to Lexington?
 DL: After we conducted a major market study that included interviews with visitors, we summed it up: “It’s the horses, stupid!” Whether it’s to see the farms or the scenic beauty, or to attend or participate in horse shows, or go to the Kentucky Horse Park or Keeneland, horses are the major draw and what Lexington is known for around the world.
EL: The Kentucky Horse Park is your top draw.
DL: Yes. It should be noted that the majority of the people that visit the Kentucky Horse Park are actually participating in events. We also have a lot of interest in bourbon, and we’ve seen a continued increase in people visiting the distilleries.
EL: Why does the LCVB promote Berea, Shaker Village, Renfro Valley, Frankfort, and other venues outside of Fayette County?
DL: That’s a good question. My job is to get people here and have them stay here longer. Promoting nearby tourist attractions creates more room nights (by extending the stay in Lexington) and each visitor will spend more money in the Lexington area.
EL: Do you have a ballpark number about how much a visitor spends each day in Fayette County?
DL: The typical visitor spends $159 a day. The average stay is 2.94 days and the average size of their party is 2.75 persons.
EL: The Kentucky Horse Park has been selected as the venue for the FEI 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG), and that announcement was made by Gov. Ernie Fletcher on Dec. 6. Since the announcement, have your initial expectations or perceptions changed now that you’ve had time to reflect on the event?
DL: I think the World Equestrian Games are going to be larger than originally anticipated because of interest from within the United States. The U.S. Equestrian Federation conducted a recent study on how many people actively own and show horses. We are still feeling our way through that report. We want to go out to the horse people and see how many are actually planning to come. We asked the vice president of the Salt Lake City bureau what they wish they had done differently. Their Olympics event went extremely well. They said they would have focused on the year after the event and beyond.
How will Lexington use the WEG to leverage everything from economic development to creating more tourism? With Jim Host involved as the chair of the event committee, my sense is that the event is going to be great. Lexington, the state and the region will all rise to the occasion.
EL: The actual event will last for 14 days, but how do you see the periods prior to and after the event being impacted?
DL: That’s really exciting. Some of the equestrian events have never taken place in Lexington. Some of the discussions with the horse park and the U.S. Equestrian Federation are how can we create interim national championships for those events before and after the WEG date. There’s also a discussion with the president of Alltech, Dr. Pearse Lyons. He wants to host a worldwide equine nutrional symposium in Lexington before WEG and every year thereafter.
EL: Do you think the people will also visit Lexington just because of the international publicity the city will receive?
DL: I think so. There are a lot of other plans going on at the horse park, from the jockey training school to polo. What I like the most is WEG is promoting what is very authentic to our area – horses. Lexington is not going out and developing a water park or a theme park, we are taking what we are known for and enhancing that. For years the horse park has fought to get the funding just to maintain that facility. The WEG will make it possible to ratchet up the horse park and make it a true world-class facility.
EL: Gov. Fletcher is supporting construction of a new air-conditioned arena at the Horse Park. How do you feel an indoor facility will impact tourism in the community?
DL: I think it’s going to be great boost. With the arena, Lexington can compete with places like Albuquerque, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Spruce Meadows, etc. for indoor equestrian events we cannot serve right now.
EL: A new 250-room hotel is proposed for the horse park. What is the demand for this facility?
DL: A hotel will make the horse park a destination where tourists can come and stay with horses. From everything we know about travel today, it’s all about the experience.
EL: Thirty-five to 40 associations are located at the horse park. Will an on-site hotel benefit these organizations?
DL: Some of the associations have stated that there are certain meetings they’re not bringing to Lexington right now. A hotel at the park could help attract more of the associations’ business, board of directors, and committee meetings.
EL: WEG is a state-sponsored event and Lexington is the host city. How do you see Lexington being involved in this event?
DL: Some of our support is very mechanical. How we address our Web site. How we design our collateral materials. How the Lexington Visitors Guide is developed. How our ads are altered. Having our stationery and stamps reflect that Lexington is the host community for the 2010 World Equestrian Games. A part of the city’s effort will be a real support role for the activities of the WEG event committee. Helping with the volunteers. Working closely with the city and advocating for improvements that we would like to see made. The LCVB thinks this is a great opportunity to look at how our city presents itself.
EL: The Commerce Cabinet is headed by Secretary George Ward and the WEG Committee is headed by former Commerce Secretary Jim Host. Both the state and the committee will be working very closely with Fayette County to prepare for this event. How well do you think the city and the state will be able to work together?
DL: One is always hopeful that WEG is an opportunity that is bigger than any one party. Kentucky has been handed an opportunity to be on the world’s stage. And no one individual, no one interested party is the answer for “thorough collaboration.” Through consensus, the event committee can develop and answer the question “how do we best manage the World Equestrian Games to create a great opportunity, not just a one-time event.”
EL: Will the World Equestrian Games affect hotels in Louisville, Northern Kentucky, and the surrounding region?
DL: It will definitely be like throwing a pebble in a pond. It will start locally because the athletes, the press, the sponsors, the VIPs will all want to be as close as they can. Germany (site of the 2006 WEG) has fewer rooms than Lexington. They are already starting to sell 75 miles out from their venue. When the games were in Spain, people didn’t think twice about staying 1 1/2 hours away. At this point, we don’t know enough to project the overall demand for accommodations.
EL: The state passed a 1 percent bed tax to raise more money to promote tourism. The state shares some of the tax revenues with local convention bureaus. How well is this new program working?
DL: The LCVB likes this program because we were able to match dollars in the first round. That will provide approximately $200,000 more to market Lexington. A lot of the smaller communities don’t have enough money in their budgets for matching. For this reason, there’s available state money that is not being matched or used. With that in mind, the LCVB has recently started to develop a long-term, strategic marketing plan that can help the region qualify for matching funds. Previously, the region hasn’t had a strategic plan that we could take to the state. We hope to have that plan completed within the next six months.
EL: What is your vision for the region around Lexington?
DL: The LCVB wants to look 10 years down the road and then develop a three-year work plan. I can’t tell you one city that’s in Napa Valley, I just know that that area exists. I know it has a particular feel. I think the Bluegrass region has that opportunity to develop that type of tourism appeal . When people say they plan to visit Kentucky, their friends will say: “When you go there, you have to visit the Bluegrass.”
Ed G. Lane is chief executive of Lane Consultants Inc. and publisher
of The Lane Report.
edlane@lanereport.com
Back to One on One Index
Back to the February Issue
|
