Spotlight On: Brent DeRaad, President & CEO, Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau

Spotlight On: Brent DeRaad, President & CEO, Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau

2022-10-05T12:54:22-04:00October 5th, 2022|Dallas-Fort Worth, Spotlight On, Tourism|

2 min read October 2022 Invest: spoke with Brent DeRaad, president and CEO of the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau, to discuss how Arlington’s world-class entertainment has anchored the city through challenging economic times. “The biggest factor in getting visitors traveling again is the experience a destination can provide,” he said. 

What are your ongoing goals for the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau?

Three of the most important goals for our CVB are: 

1) to continue institutional support for the tourism industry in Arlington. Arlington was fortunate we didn’t suffer economically to the extent many other cities did over the course of the pandemic, largely due to the strength of our venues, our ability to still welcome leisure tourism and host large profile events. Our city really banded together to make things happen. Without tourism advocacy and support among a destination’s leadership, it is much harder for tourism to be successful. Arlington understands that tourism is in our DNA. 

2) Tourist related infrastructure is also vitally important. Development brings opportunities. Right now, Arlington is in the middle of a massive $810 million expansion of our Convention Campus. In addition to a new 888-room Loews Arlington hotel, the development includes a new Arlington Convention Center and 100,000 square feet of retail, entertainment and coworking space, to help grow and support small businesses. All of this adds to the offerings that drive visitation to our city. 

3) Destination promotion, management, and workforce development: the biggest factor in getting customers traveling again is the experience a place can provide. Our role as a DMO is destination awareness, but it’s also much more. Visitors generate revenue for local businesses and leave behind tax revenue for community and city services. But it’s hard to have a great tourist destination without a hospitality workforce. We developed the Travel and Sports Legacy Foundation to help introduce a workforce to the wonderful opportunities that exist for careers in tourism.  

What distinguishes Arlington as a tourist destination?

A visitor is looking for certain things in a destination. Along with accommodations and accessibility, the level of entertainment and experiences you get in Arlington sets us apart. With the Cowboys and Rangers home games here, we have professional sports essentially year-round. The Rangers’ old Choctaw Stadium is now used as a concert and event venue, so it gives us a consistent national visitor draw. And we have a strong theme park, Six Flags Over Texas, still building strong memories for kids and families every day. Post pandemic and in our current economy, we are also an easy drive, which caters well to in-state and surrounding state visitors looking for a vacation or getaway. On the other hand, we are 10 minutes from DFW International Airport and Love Field and bring in travelers from all over the world. We are a top entertainment destination in Texas. 

What is the role of technology in your daily operations and how is that changing the tourism industry?

Technology is vital and it has been especially impactful in our marketing and reach. I have to give all the credit to our team who have such a strong handle on our target markets and demographics. We have definitely spent more on better data and deeper insights that help us deploy campaigns based on what the data is telling us. Online tech is also a big driver in how we operate. We’ve seen a big shift since the pandemic of people making reservations a few days to a week out, instead of a month or more in advance. With more nimble technology, we are able to respond quickly and efficiently to data information regarding bookings that allow us to make a quick turnaround in strategy or other. There have been some incredible reservation increases as a result.

How is the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau engaging younger travelers?

We pay specific attention to social media and use those channels to talk to younger, niche travelers. Younger than 35 travelers mostly find their inspiration on social media, blogs and reviews.  Experiences can be more important to this segment of travelers than cost. We see that in terms of spending. We let them know about events and activities, and we also focus on what we call our hidden gems. Everything from gastronomy to nature. For 2022, trends showed that consumers are traveling with family more than ever, and as a family destination we understand we have to differentiate our product as well to fit multi-generational needs in the same trip. But that isn’t hard for us, something that I’ve always believed to be true about Arlington is that great places to live are great places to visit. 

What are the ways the Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau is impacting the recovery of hospitality in the region?

What’s so unique about us is that we have our own nonprofit, The Travel and Sports Legacy Foundation. This effort is focused on workforce development because the biggest challenge continues to be finding enough workers to fill all the open positions in our industry. Otherwise, we can’t deliver the level of service customers have come to expect. It’s paramount for us. We also work with partner businesses to ensure they have the tools they need to recover from a pandemic that greatly impacted them. We are fortunate to have several hundred partner businesses and are excited to help them in any way we can, with communication and an understanding of each other’s needs with the goal of raising each other up.

For more information, visit:

https://www.arlington.org/ 

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