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CVB trade show trips approved
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County commissioners have approved spending an estimated $6,500 for registration and travel expenses for county Convention and Visitors’ Bureau trips to travel industry trade shows early next year.
This consists of an estimated $4,000 to attend the American Bus Association Marketplace Trade Show, Jan. 14-17, in Cleveland, and $2,500 to attend the AAA Great Vacation Travel Expo Trade Show, Feb. 2-5, in Columbus.
Linda Macala, county CVB director, said the ABA event is the nation’s largest motorcoach industry show.
CVB’s mission is to bring event attendees and tourists to the Mahoning Valley, where their spending stimulates the local economy through hotel stays, restaurant visits and shopping in local stores, Macala said.
When CVB staff attends such trade shows, their goals are to persuade tour bus companies and others in the travel industry to encourage tourists to visit the Mahoning Valley and to persuade tour operators to route their bus trips to Mahoning Valley attractions, Macala said.
The bureau’s purpose in attending such shows is “to promote our area, to make people aware of what’s here and to bring them here,” she said.
“ABA is specifically motorcoach. The AAA show is more leisure travel, people just looking for a weekend getaway,” she said.
The commissioners also have approved a $1,000 sponsorship grant to Youngstown State University’s College of Creative Arts and Communication to enhance a local public art project supported by a $100,000 Our Town grant to YSU from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The project is designed to help revitalize the downtown and YSU areas.
All the money the commissioners approved for the CVB projects comes from county hotel bed tax revenues.