Aspen Chamber Resort Association | www.aspenchamber.org
Smaller Destinations for Large Events Introduction This white paper focuses on the benefits of considering smaller destinations for large events and conferences and the importance of working with the destination marketing organization (DMO) to plan a successful event. Events that have historically booked Tier 1 and Tier 2 destinations due to the larger hotel inventory and convention centers become city-wide events in smaller Tier 3 destinations. These city-wide programs are produced as a community supported event in smaller destinations with buy-in from the entire destination to ensure the event’s success. The DMO in a Tier 3 destination will advocate strongly for an event’s success and support the event with destination services and personal connections to the local businesses, hotels, and vendors that are key players in event production.
Aspen Chamber Resort Association | www.aspenchamber.org
Challenge Meeting and event planners are challenged by decision-makers and event attendees to produce exciting, motivating, and educational events on an annual basis. An event planner must balance attendance numbers, cost, and event production with the desire to keep an event fresh and inspiring. This can be achieved in a number of ways including the speakers, programming, technology, and the selected host destination. This paper will provide a solution for maintaining event longevity and achieving attendance goals by positioning destinations that may have historically been considered too small for the traditional large conference or event as the right sized destination for a future location. Event planners often only focus on Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities based on assumptions and past experience working in large scale destinations to produce larger conferences and events. The event planners are challenged to find the balance between the attributes required in a city to successfully produce their event while also finding destinations with unique offerings. Event planners focus on Tier 1 cities for access to their infrastructure, non-stop domestic and international air service, existing entertainment, activities, and restaurant options. Tier 2 cities have many of these same features on a slightly smaller scale. Tier 3 cities will have fewer offerings including smaller hotels, less air service, and in some locations, more limited activities and restaurant options.
Aspen Chamber Resort Association | www.aspenchamber.org
Background Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities may offer more competitive flight costs, but the demand for the hotels and accommodations results in much higher average daily rates. According to Michelle Russel, editor in chief of PCMA’s Convene magazine, "a city’s designation as Tier 1 or Tier 2 is more of a perception than a rigid set of criteria" as noted in her June 2015 article What Makes a City First Tier? Planners may be instructed to only focus on Tier 1 or Tier 2 cities and may not possess the knowledge of smaller Tier 3 cities and the positive benefits of working with these destinations. Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities hold a competitive advantage over Tier 3 and smaller cities with their air service, large hotel inventory, and amenities. But Tier 3 cities remain competitive through a community-based approach of selling and supporting larger events and ultimately providing more benefit and ease for producing the event for the event planner.
PCMA Convene Survey presented in Social Tables blog Meeting Destinations: Why First Tier Cities Aren't Necessarily the Right First Choice
Aspen Chamber Resort Association | www.aspenchamber.org
Reference “Selecting Aspen as a premier location for a city-wide event sends the message of forward-thinking, wellness, and sustainability. The city offers a bevy of incredible local vendors and services, along with resources that help to minimize the carbon footprint for all involved. When Earth’s Call visited Aspen in the spring of 2019, the focus was the overall social impact and environmental mindfulness. RMC suggested the WE-Cycle program and batteryoperated golf carts to shuttle staff around the Aspen Institute campus. Guests were also encouraged to walk to concerts and meetings, and to enjoy the breathtaking views along their way. With beautiful weather, limitless extracurricular opportunities, and sufficient meeting space, Aspen provides impressive resources within its community to execute a truly memorable large-scale event. Groups of all sizes will leave feeling rejuvenated, engaged and grateful for the awe-inspiring experience.” Kalyn Bean, Assistant General Manager RMC - Resorts | Mountains | Cities
Aspen Chamber Resort Association | www.aspenchamber.org
Use the DMO to Your Advantage By working with the destination marketing organization in a smaller destination, event planners will experience more personalized service and support for their event. The citywide event will be less likely to compete against other large events over the same dates as they might experience in a Tier 1 or Tier 2 city. The DMO will advocate for the citywide event at their unique venues such as performing arts centers, recreation centers, and public parks that have legacy events. The DMO or CVB specializes in knowing the need periods and blackout dates in their destination, and they provide support in navigating required permits, facilitating requests to air service partners for increased service on peak travel days, and will source event support from regional vendors as needed. The DMO advocates for large events and helps connect the event planner to the best fit for hotels, venues, group vendors, and local speakers. The DMO educates the event planner on value dates and need periods for the destination. They advise which hotels and venues will function best as the host location, how to successfully utilize overflow lodging to achieve the room block needs, and make connections to group vendors with experience in the destination and with larger city-wide events.
Destinations International
Aspen Chamber Resort Association | www.aspenchamber.org
The Solution – Use Smaller Destinations As noted on Cvent’s Social Tables blog, Meeting Destinations: Why First-Tier Cities Aren’t Necessarily the Right First Choice, the desirable attributes of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities include culture and authenticity, knowledge economies, eagerness and improvement, walkability, and “bleisure” appeal. A smaller Tier 3 destination like Aspen, Colorado, excels in each of these areas with a local passion that is experienced working with the DMO from the initial RFP process to the final departure. Aspen’s western culture with its love of outdoor adventure, arts, and culture creates a destination with small town living and big city appeal. Event attendees experience this firsthand through the pedestrian and bike friendly downtown and alternative forms of transportation such as a complimentary electric vehicle shuttle, the Downtowner, which offers rides on demand throughout town. The WE-cycle bike share program offers free 30 minute rides and is a sponsorship opportunity for the event planner to increase visibility of event sponsors. A free city bus, RFTA, offers service throughout Aspen, to the Aspen Pitkin County Airport, and the resort mountains for activities. Historical, art, and architectural walking tours can be incorporated into an event’s transportation plan to create a sense of place and add an educational element. Smaller destinations have unique knowledge economies for event planners to tap for speakers and entertainment. Aspen is home to numerous Olympic and XGames athletes, philanthropists, authors, and thought-leaders associated with the Aspen Institute, all of whom can be connected through the DMO. The bleisure travel trend in tourism makes a destination like Aspen an appealing event destination. Combining business with world-class adventure and nightlife in a bucket list destination makes for a must attend bleisure trip resulting in higher event attendance.
Conclusion A smaller destination’s eagerness to host events that positively impact the entire destination will offer access to booking incentives, advocacy for bringing an event to the destination, and a level of personalization unique to the smaller destination. Smaller destinations approach city-wide event business as a win for all hotels and businesses in the community. The community benefits from the increased visitation and works through the DMO to extend special offers, discounts, and incentives to the city-wide event. Smaller destinations should be used for large conferences and events to create inspiring programs in a desirable destination while increasing attendance and event longevity.