Destination Greater Victoria’s marketing of the Victoria Conference Centre is expected to pay off with a record convention year that could be worth nearly $50 million to the city.
The destination marketing organization, which took over the sales and marketing of the facility from the city in 2017, said it has booked 35 “city-wide conferences” for 2020. The previous best was 29 in 2019.
City-wide conferences are those with at least 400 delegates staying at two or more hotels.
“Conference business is critical to the year-round viability of small business in Greater Victoria,” said Paul Nursey, chief executive of Destination Greater Victoria. “Conference delegates are the highest spending segment of out-of-town visitor. These are the type of visitors all destinations desire.”
It’s an early indication that 2020 will be a good year for tourism, after a flat 2019.
The Victoria Conference Centre has been an underperforming amenity for years, but the new program implemented by Nursey’s team expects to yield 122,000 delegate days this year.
Last year the conference centre had 118,661 delegate days and 2018 had 121,430.
In an interview, Nursey said it is still a work in progress, and they are still a year or two away from hitting their stride and reaching capacity in the centre, but he is optimistic they will.
Nursey said the organization is trying to attract more delegates with expense accounts to the city, particularly during the off-season.
This year, that will translate into at least $47 million in economic impact, a figure that could grow with new bookings.
The centre also has 32 smaller conferences scheduled this year.
Nursey said he is “really quite confident” that 2020 will surpass an “uneven” 2019 — keeping in mind it followed a record 2018.
He pointed out that as the city has become more vibrant so has the tourism industry, which tends to draw attention.
