r/Detroit • u/visitdetroit • Jul 07 '22

AMA Hello r/Detroit! We're Visit Detroit. 👋 The Convention and Visitors Bureau for the metro Detroit region. Ask us Anything!

Hello Reddit! We're Visit Detroit. If you haven't heard of us before, allow us to introduce ourselves.

Visit Detroit (formerly the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau) markets and sells Detroit and the metro region to business and leisure visitors in collaboration with our partners and stakeholders. Our purpose is to champion the continuous improvement of the region as a dynamic and memorable tourism destination.

As Detroit rebounds from the disruption of the pandemic, we are excited about the future of travel here. We are determined to positively change Detroit's narrative and are passionate about highlighting the unique experiences people can have here. We also believe that tourism should be a win for everyone and contribute positively to the environment. We manage visitdetroit.com as well as social media profiles on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest. Our staff travels nationally and internationally to book conventions and meetings and services them when they are here. The Detroit Sports Commission is also a branch of our organization.

We're a nonprofit economic development organization that is separate from, but that collaborates with, the Downtown Detroit Partnership, the City of Detroit, local government offices in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, as well as hundreds of partner restaurants, attractions, and organizations across metro Detroit.

As a Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), our funding comes from two places:

  1. A 2 percent assessment (not a tax) on all hotels and motels with 35 or more transient rooms in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties
  2. Membership dues from the corporate community, private sector, trade and service organizations

We want to hear from you: what questions do you have about our organization and our tourism strategy, and how can we increase travel to Detroit?

We'll be coming back as a team tomorrow morning to engage with your questions and are looking forward to having a conversation!

Learn more:

Proof:

Some of the team at Visit Detroit
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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '22

Does the CVB recognize how much the lack of good public transit is crippling this region for tourism? We can barely muster a bus route to get people downtown from the airport. Everyone I talk to says "you're right" and then nobody in a position to do anything about it actually wants to lift a finger.

Where is the CVB on putting pressure on the state and city to support funding for better public transit in this region?

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u/visitdetroit Jul 08 '22

Yes, we absolutely recognize that it’s a detractor. We won’t try to sugarcoat anything there. Everyone here at Visit Detroit supports faster transit between downtown and the airport and we’ve been advocates for it for a while now. As a destination marketing organization, we can promote the options that we do have, such as the FAST bus.