August 16 at Lincoln South Rotary

The Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau has 6 full-time staff members as well as seasonal volunteers and internships. Jeff conducts regular interviews on radio (KLIN, KFOR, KZUM) and on channels 5 and 10 on TV.

He said that currently there are 68 lodging facilities in Lincoln offering 5263 rooms. Recent developments affecting lodging:

• Kindler Hotel Downtown - high-end boutique hotel; includes the first restaurant being opened by Olympic skater Brian Boitano (click here for news article)
• New hotel planned for for former Lincoln Journal Star print site
• Expansion and construction projects in Lincoln attractions / event facilities adds need for rooms

He displayed an interesting chart of annual hotel rooms booked, showing a record in 2018 over 100,000 rooms:

Jeff stated that they believe the increase is partly due to the increased number of media / travel writers that have been invited to Lincoln. There is also the Reimage Lincoln campaign that includes digital and print billboards. Some are posted in neighboring states.

Recent city rankings:
#1 Best City to find a job (livability)
#5 Best Cities to Raise a Family (smart asset)
#3 Top Cities for Young Entrepreneurs (forbes)
#2 Cities with best work-life balance
#1 5 up and coming tech hotspots (livability)
Just outside the top 25 of the best city for beer drinkers

In looking at market groups it shows we should concentrate on:

• Youth Sports
  • a $10-$12 billion industry
  • 55% growth since 2010
  • Study shows we must build demand-generating facilities
• Group Tours/Motorcoach Industry