Conventions and Sports Headed to Detroit!

(Detroit, Tuesday, February 8)–Visit Detroit today announced a national marketing campaign to highlight more than 100 new meetings and sporting events worth $200 million headed to the region this year and beyond.

The “Detroit Wins,” campaign was unveiled at Visit Detroit’s Annual Partnership Meeting. The campaign highlights all of the new meetings and sports booked during the COVID-19 pandemic and will consist of advertising in high profile publications such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, beginning next weekend. It will be supported by public relations efforts and more announcements of business that is expected to be finalized throughout the year.

Claude Molinari, Visit Detroit president and CEO, said the Detroit Wins campaign is a way of letting other meeting planners and sports organizers know that the city and region are open for business and that other marquee events have shown their confidence by committing to bring their event. “In this next year, we will welcome a huge volume of high profile conventions and sporting events, generating about 103,000 room nights. Two of those events—the American Bus Association and CONNECT–have the potential to bring several more future events because their attendees plan meetings,” Molinari said.

Among the other meetings on the books are the Automate Conference, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Michigan Elite Volleyball Academy, National Science Teaching Association, International Women’s Forum, Women of Color Stem Conference, United States Bowling Congress, Special Olympics and many more. The National

Brownfield Training Conference was the most recent booking. Last week, they announced their meeting in Detroit which will draw 36,992 attendees and about 4,900 hotel room nights. Molinari added that the campaign is also intended to encourage local residents to consider bringing their own company meetings as well as their social, fraternal and association meetings to the region.

It is not only conventions and sports that are headed to Detroit, Molinari said. The city has gained traction as a popular cruise ship stop on the Great Lakes and will welcome port arrivals in 2022, including Viking Cruise Lines, the largest and most recognized river cruise line.

Michigan State Football Head Coach Mel Tucker was the keynote speaker at the Annual Partnership meeting and discussed how to motivate a team, or an organization, and emerge a winner. The meeting also featured three planners from conventions and sports groups headed to Detroit: CONNECT, American Bus Association and NCAA who discussed their upcoming events and how the hospitality community can prepare.

For a complete list of conventions and sporting events coming to Detroit, click on www.visitdetroit.com/wins.

###

Visit Detroit is a private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to market and sell the metropolitan Detroit area on a worldwide basis as a destination for leisure and business travel including conventions, trade shows, corporate meetings, tours and incentive travel to maximize additional visitors, visitor expenditures, state and local tax revenues and job opportunities.

More than 700 businesses are represented in Visit Detroit’s membership. Visit Detroit was founded in 1896 as the world’s first convention and visitors bureau. visitdetroit.com