Palm Beach County CVB Debuts New Vision for Tourism

October 29, 2008, marked the one-year anniversary of Jorge Pesquera’s tenure as president and CEO of the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB). This anniversary also coincided with the first-ever public presentation of the destination’s 2009 marketing and business plan.

The presentation, held at the West Palm Beach Marriott, outlined the new initiatives and goals for the bureau’s 2009 fiscal year. The second presentation took place Oct. 30 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. Both events, with a standing-room-only attendance, drew local community leaders, including mayors, city and county commissioners, and business executives.

Acknowledging the current economic challenges facing the community, Pesquera stressed that there is a greater responsibility on those who have an opportunity to impact economic activity.

“The tactics that worked in the past are no longer sufficient to produce the results that will propel our economic powerhouse –tourism- to the levels I firmly believe we can reach and that our destination so richly deserves,” he said. “We must reinvent the way we do business to secure that successful future.”

The Palm Beach County CVB’s 2020 Vision sees the economic impact in the County rising from $2.8 billion to $6 billion, visitors to the County growing from 4.7 million to 10 million, jobs in the County rising from 53,000 to 100,000, hotel rooms available in the county increasing from 16,000 to 25,000, hotel occupancy levels in the County rising from 67 percent to 80 percent.