Virginia Beach Offers More Than Sun and Sand
With the first phase of the Virginia Beach Convention Center celebrating its first birthday, Virginia Beach is proving to be a popular destination with a wide range of SMERF groups. At press time, the new center had 116 conferences, meetings and sporting events booked through 2012, with an estimated $175 million in economic impact.
The largest city in Virginia, Virginia Beach offers 35 miles of public and private beaches, two state parks and a national wildlife refuge. This means visitors can enjoy a wide variety of attractions, including golf, fishing, kayaking, hiking, biking and of course, sun and sand on the beach.
Planners also have the benefit of being able to utilize a number of unique venues such as the Virginia Aquarium, which can host a reception for 2,500 people, the luxury charter called Virginia's Jewel, which can accommodate up to 110 people, and the Contemporary Art Center, with various facilities for up to 450 people. For military-associated groups, the beachfront Fort Story Officer’s Club (which also incorporates the beach where America’s first settlers landed) can host up to 200 people.
Virginia Beach has no trouble handling larger groups, as well. The Virginia Beach Convention Center opened last summer, offering more than 300,000 square feet of space, including a state-of-the-art ballroom with LED lighting, free parking, and top-of-the line technology. When the center is completed in early 2007, it will offer more than 500,000 square feet of space. The nearby Verizon Wireless Ampitheater can host open-air gatherings of 20,000 people; 7,500 of the seats have roof cover. There are also 11,000 hotel rooms in the city including 7,830 beachfront rooms. Most of the hotels are just 20 minutes from Northfolk International Airport.
From pre-planning to on-site logistics, the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau acts as an extension of a SMERF planner’s team. The CVB can assist in identifying appropriate facilities and unique attention-getters like personalized postcards planners can create online. They also host periodic familiarization trips for planners interested in learning more about the destination.
In a further step to make planners’ work easier, the city has also recently implemented Passkey, a leading online group reservations management system. Through Passkey, the Virginia Beach CVB can now provide meeting planners with: accurate and instant visibility to their event block and pick-up; customized event Web pages, allowing attendees to book rooms online; access anytime to run reports and rooming lists with up-to-date data; seamless integration to their preferred registration solution, and access to easily upload their rooming lists. “Offering Passkey is just another way to show our clients that we value them and the success of their events,” says Al Hutchinson, Virginia Beach CVB director of convention sales.
For More Information
Contact Al Hutchinson, director of convention sales at the Virginia Beach CVB, by phone at 757-385-6652 or by e-mail at ahutchin@vbgov.com.
