Louisville CVB Rebrands as Louisville Tourism
July 3, 2018
With its bounty of ongoing hotel development and renovations, a growing bourbon district, new attractions and a soon-to-be-unveiled, expanded downtown convention center, the city of Louisville has been working overtime to meet the demands of its more than 16.4 million annual visitors.
To coincide with this plethora of development while celebrating its 50-year milestone of marketing the city’s tourism and travel business, the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau has changed its name to Louisville Tourism.
According to Louisville Tourism President and CEO Karen Williams, the new streamlined name is meant to reflect the organization’s broader work of developing tourism in the city while reflecting the economic growth the hospitality industry generates for Louisville.
“Though the operating name of our organization has changed several times since 1968, our mission has not,” Williams explained. “We exist to grow Louisville’s economy through tourism in its many forms from conventions and meetings to group and leisure travel.”
She added, “On the occasion of our 50th celebration, we want to recognize the work of our entire industry and our local community by simplifying what we call ourselves.”
Since July 8, 1968, Louisville Tourism’s primary goal has been to promote and sell Louisville as a world-class destination in an effort to enhance the area’s economy through tourism development.
On that date, the current iteration of Louisville’s tourism marketing agency was formed as “commission” with a dedicated funding source by the Kentucky General Assembly. Though previous organizations and booster groups from as early as 1910 can be traced to promoting visitation to the city in various forms, the “Louisville and Jefferson County Convention and Visitors Bureau” legally began operation on that date under a seven-member board funded by a “hotel and motel room tax to promote convention and tourism business,” according to Louisville Tourism officials.
As the third largest industry in Louisville, tourism generates an estimated economic impact of $3.5 billion and supports more than 27,000 local tourism-related jobs.
In addition to a full-time Louisville Visitor Center, Louisville Tourism is launching new website features to enhance local tourism efforts, including a new jobs portal that will curate hospitality industry openings and career path information for the tourism professional and a speakers bureau page.
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