Destinations International's Annual Convention: All You Need To Know

Author: Soumya Divakaran on Dec 27,2022

Baltimore, MD, USA, will witness the spectacular Destinations Internationals Annual Convention. The event will host various speakers, discussing the realities of rebranding and re-envisioning the future of travel, owing to the aftermath of not just the pandemic but also civil unrest and the global economic crisis. The July event will focus on building community engagement, brand management, destination assets, and innovation.

Introduction 

Destinations International is a global trade association catering to convention and visitors bureaus, the CVBs, and the tourism boards. The organization has announced its 2021 Annual Convention as a hybrid event from July 13th to July 15th. This year, the event is circumferencing disruptions that the entire travel and tourism industry faced this past year.

The attendees will learn about the future of travel and tourism and how organizations have embraced the adverse effects of the events since the pandemic. The key is to build a hospitable environment concerning tourism, better organizations, and community effort.

What is the Annual Convention all about?

Since the onset of the global pandemic, the tourism industry has seen some extraordinary changes and challenges. These challenges were further exacerbated by budget cuts, social unrest, natural disasters, injustices, global elections, and much more, completely changing the landscape of the tourism industry worldwide. 

The experts must look for a set of solutions that can help flourish the industry and recover from such damages. Leaders are getting together in the Destinations Internationals Annual Convention, along with stakeholders to encourage innovations that will facilitate their work, all for the common good of the community they are looking to serve. 

The hybrid event is one of a kind, looking forward to inspiring, rejuvenating and energizing the industry overall, fostering the right support to move past these disturbances and grow further. 

What to expect from this hybrid event?

The Baltimore-based convention will be a hybrid event this year. This allows all the participants who will be unable to attend the event due to the pandemic, to participate in all the networking and education virtually. In fact, all the significant events of Destination International will be hybrid this year, barring only the CDME course, which will be entirely face-to-face. 

The event is categorized into three kinds of sessions. 

You can expect:

Live-streamed sessions 

In the live-streamed sessions, attendees will witness everything that is going on in the actual event on their screens. The selected discussions, all of the general sessions, and much more will be live-streamed to the virtual audiences, so everyone, even people who cannot be in Baltimore, can witness the same content. 

Moderated sessions 

The moderated discussion sessions will be conducted on the premises, which will comprise questions and other agenda points. These discussions can be experienced by all attendees alike, be it on a virtual platform or in person. 

Online community discussions

Some very exclusive community discussions will be conducted this time, especially for all the virtual participants. These discussions will be conducted either before, during, or after the events. The key here is, everyone should feel included, no matter where they are. 

The variety of sessions truly justify why the event this year is being called a hybrid event!

Significance of the event 

As per the President and CEO of Destinations International, Don Welsh, the events significance this year is higher than what was experienced in the previous years. After COVID-19 has managed to separate everything and everyone in the industry, it becomes essential for people to come together and gather their spirits back to foster future growth. 

It was not just the health concerns that troubled everyone; it was the devastating results and financial damages to the tourism industry. Since the pandemic began, people have been forced to lay off their employees or forgo a significant portion of their employees. Major hotels closed down across the world, and some are operating on smaller budgets. 

An event of this magnitude is happening to facilitate the growth of such people and help them get back on their feet. All the trade shows, meetings and conferences, and other such events, even though with fewer people, will hold a vital spot for the future of this industry. 

The timing of these events is applaudable since industry experts are looking forward to the business growing from the second half of 2021. Expectations of travel picking up again, though slowly, from the second part of 2021 are based on the premise that more and more people are getting vaccinated daily. This event, therefore, will serve as a base to jumpstart the further third and the fourth quarters. 

The Destinations International Annual Convention brought in over 3,000 attendees from 14 different countries in the previous year. This year, even though the numbers cannot match in-person, the convention aims to cater to more than the previous years numbers through in-person meets and virtual meets. 

The conferences and meetings are significant in terms of educating the audiences about the destinations, budget sizes, marketing and sales, and other networking opportunities. 

Why Baltimore? 

For Destinations Internationals Annual Convention 2021, Baltimore proved to be the most ideal choice. The city has its own charm and is located only 45 minutes away from the Destinations International office on M Street in Washington D.C. The location is also pretty close to almost all the metropolitan areas beyond the capital. These locations are just a drive away from Philadelphia, New York, and other major cities. Baltimore is also suitable for people coming in from different parts of The United States and the world, as it connects three major airports around the city, only under an hour in terms of distance. 

Schedule for the Destinations Internationals Annual Convention 

The annual convention events start on July 13 and end on July 15. 

The events on all of the days start with a networking breakfast at 08:30 AM ET, followed by Destinations International President and CEO Don Welsh welcoming you to the convention at 09:00 AM ET. 

How to register for the event? 

You can register for two kinds of events at the convention: In-person events and virtual events. 

In-person

For the In-person events, the charges are as follows: 

For members: US$595

For Non-Members: US$695

Virtual 

For the virtual events, the charges are as follows: 

- For members: US$395

- For non-members: US$495