How to Use the Convention & Visitors Bureau

When your planning a vacation or business trip, where do you go for your travel research?  This blog, I hope!  But where else do you start looking for the information you’ll need to make decisions about things to do and see?

One often overlooked FREE source of travel information is the Convention & Visitors Bureau.  Often related to tourism bureaus, boards, and commissions, CVB’s are a good resource for information on larger cities.  Larger is a matter of interpretation these days, as more and more small cities have set out to bring tourism to their communities.

CVB’s are trying to “sell” their community, but not any particular business within the community, so they are often seen as an unbiased source of information.  I’m not sure that I’d go so far as to call them unbiased; I’d like to think of it more as neutral.  They’re dishing out information, rather than commenting upon it.

What can a CVB provide you with?  Most anything you can think of.  Since their objective is to bring tourism to their area, they try to show conventions and travel groups the myriad things to do and see in the area.

Some of this will have to do with meeting space, of course, but every CVB hopes that an attendee will come in early, stay a few days after, and maybe even bring family and friends along.  And they know that it’s not all business all the time, so they’re sure to provide information about all the things the city has to offer.  You’ll likely find hotel and restaurant information, transportation and airport information, and most likely a list of attractions and events, all useful data for your planning.

Many CVB’s have a website, and a basic search should help you find it.  You can view and download information from the site, or often request that information be mailed out to you (usually at NO CHARGE).  The effectiveness of the website is usually directly related to the tourism budget of the city, so be patient with some of the smaller cities.

Don’t pass up this FREE resource when you make your travel plans!

Photo credit: SXC