Although it previously didn't have even one, the city of Beaufort, S.C., may soon have two convention and visitors bureaus with which to court meetings and conventions, reports local newspaper
The Beaufort Gazette.
According to the paper, the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce voted at a November board meeting to add "Visitor and Convention Bureau" to its official name in order to facilitate the active recruitment of more group business.
"It's beautiful here, but people know there hasn't been a reputation for meeting space," Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce President Carlotta Ungaro told the
Gazette earlier this month. "Now we finally have two hotels with meeting space."
The hotels—a Holiday Inn and a Hilton Garden Inn—opened earlier this year and can accommodate meetings of approximately 100 and 70 attendees respectively, according to the
Gazette, which says a Beaufort convention center is also being discussed by city officials.
Although the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce is now in the process of forming its CVB, its former chair, local developer Dick Stewart, has already formed one of his own. Called the Beaufort-Port Royal Convention and Visitors Bureau, it's been operational as a nonprofit for at least six months, according to the
Gazette.
"I felt we have not done a great job of telling our story," Stewart said. "Tourism is our single largest opportunity to keep our economy solvent and moving forward. I made a business decision to do this because it's the best for our tourism industry."
In pursuit of tourists, Stewart launched a new Web site this month at
www.visitbeaufort.org and plans to introduce travel information kiosks at locations throughout Beaufort in February 2009.
"It's about heads in beds," he told the
Gazette.
Because their organizations share goals and structures—both want to attract more visitors to Beaufort, for instance, and both plan to have boards of directors—Stewart and Ungaro recently met in order to discuss joining forces and combining resources, although they have yet to reach a formal agreement or announce any concrete plans.