2009 Lodging Numbers Announced
Smith Travel Research has reported 2009 year-end numbers for hotel occupancy rates.

Hotel Room Rate Growth Will Be Slow
Experts predict hotel room rates will not return to their higher levels for quite some time.

Travel Industry Forecasts For 2010
Travel industry specialists are gathering around their crystal balls to make predictions for the health of the travel industry in 2010.

"If you build a place people want to visit, you build a place where people want to live.

If you build a place where people want to live, you'll build a place where people want to work.

If you build a place where people want to work, you'll build a place where business has to be.
And if you build a place where business has to be, you'll build a place where people have to visit."

 Welcome to the new Association of Indiana Convention and Visitors Bureaus web site. This statement, made by Maura Gast of the Irving, Texas Convention and Visitors Bureau and Chairman of our national affiliate trade organization, the Destination Marketing Association International at our annual conference last year, speaks to the changing role of tourism organizations. Once the producers of the travel brochure and promoters of local festivals and events, destination marketing organizations (or convention and visitors bureaus) are now an integral part of the communities they serve. The tax dollars collected by our local hotels continue to support the production of brochures, advertising, web sites and billboards, but they do so much more. Visitor bureau staffs sit on planning committees, work with local economic development entities and provide expertise and support in the areas of marketing, destination development, way finding, business sustainability and so much more. We are proud to serve the Hoosier state with our more than 55 member entities whose work helps raise the professionalism of tourism as a viable industry in Indiana.