Hi, it's nice to be here. As Tom noted, I'm John Smith from the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau. The nice thing about my job is that when people find out where I work, they often have a lot of questions to ask, and they're usually very excited about the opportunity to find out more about the place they live and work. Unfortunately, the first question they ask is usually something like "what is the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau anyway?"

 

Well, in the next ten minutes or so, I'll do my best to answer that question for you, but really, it can be summed up in just a few words. What we do is help bring people here to visit Wilmington.

 

Although we often work with the Chamber of Commerce for the good of the community, our roles in its progress are very different.

 

Basically, the Chamber of Commerce wants people to come to Delaware, enjoy themselves, find a home, take a job, raise their families, and live out their years in our splendid community. A very noble goal indeed.

 

The Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau's goal, I believe, is no less noble, but, perhaps, a little bit more immediate. We want people to come to Delaware, enjoy themselves--and then go home.

 

They'll take with them a full belly courtesy of our hundreds of fine restaurants-- ranging from the simple to the truly world class.

 

They'll take with them a couple of rolls of photographs of such famous attractions as Longwood Gardens and Winterthur.

 

They'll take with them a lifetime of great memories of time spent in the historical and beautiful Brandywine Valley.

 

And hopefully, they'll take with them a lot less cash than they came in with.

 

Because our main goal is to bring more outside money into our community. Money that leads to more jobs. Money that leads to millions of dollars in local tax receipts. And money pumped into our economy that otherwise would have to be raised by increasing our taxes.

 

And we want to do this by getting the word out to more and more people. Business trippers or pleasure seekers, families or individuals: whatever you're looking for, you can find it right here in the Greater Wilmington area.

 

Not that tourism has ever been a problem here. Delaware rolls out the red carpet for some one and a half million guests per year. That's three visitors for every man, woman and child that actually resides here.

If you and your spouse share a bathroom, imagine six more people in there with you every morning and you'll get an idea of the popularity of our little corner of the Northeast.

 

But area hotels are getting together to ensure that this eventuality will never really come to pass. To help meet the demand for lodging, new and existing hotels will add 1000 rooms to the Greater Wilmington area by the end of next year--a full one third increase.

 

Just look around--you can see these new facilities being built all over town. There are the additions to the Christiana Hilton and the Chadds Ford Ramada Inn, the new Red Roof Inn, and of course, the new Pickett Suite Hotel--right smack dab in the heart of the city.

 

As a matter of fact, there's so much building going on that a lot of visitors think that our state bird is the construction crane! 

 

Just ask the U of D football players what they think of that!

 

But now that we have all these rooms, we need to redouble our efforts to fill them, and keep them filled. That's where you come in.

 

Many of you have meetings and conventions through your place of business. Why not have them in the Greater Wilmington area?

 

You're all members of something besides the (Name of organization/audience) --business association, hobby club, military organization, religious or fraternal order. Maybe you're a member of another fine service organization. They all have meetings--annually, semi-annually, monthly, even weekly. Why not hold them in the Greater Wilmington area?

 

And you all have friends who live out of town. They all take vacations, and they all take trips with their families. Why not invite them to daytrip, weekend or vacation in the Greater Wilmington area?

 

Why should we do that, you may ask? Let's start with business meetings and conventions and club meetings. Why should you suggest that your group hold a convention in a city that doesn't even have a convention center?

 

Well, if your group has 5000 people meeting, the truth is, we probably can't do an effective job for you.

 

But if your meeting requires 500 rooms or less, the truth is, we can do an excellent job for you.

 

First of all, Wilmington is one of the easiest to reach cities in the country. Right on the shores of both the mighty Atlantic and the east coast traversing superhighway I-95, Wilmington is easily accessible by ship or by car from just about anywhere. We have 28 trains daily arriving in our modern, newly refurbished train station downtown, and more than 411 daily flights into the Wilmington and Philadelphia airports, 15 and 30 minutes from downtown, respectively. And 'round the clock shuttle service ensures that your guests can get here quickly and easily--any time of day.

 

We have modern fully-equipped conference facilities ranging from a 1500-seat ballroom to small boardrooms holding almost any number of attendees. There are more than            centers that offer a wide and varied range of accommodations. We at the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau can quickly and efficiently help you find the facilities that are perfect for your needs. We can help you arrange shuttle service to and from any location for the convenience of all attendees. And we can do all this for you absolutely free of charge.

 

For pleasure seekers and business trippers alike, our area offers bountiful recreation possibilities. We have 8 golf courses, including the world famous Du Pont Country Club, home to such annual competitions as the McDonald's LPGA Championship. We have more than seven dozen tennis courts, a couple of ice skating rinks, charter boats available for sailing or fishing on the Delaware, and much, much more.

 

In season, visit our       miles of beaches. They're among the cleanest and most beautiful on the eastern seaboard.

 

Restaurants--we have hundreds, serving dishes ranging from delicious steaks and fresh seafood to haute and four-star gourmet cuisine. And compared to most cities, as one amazed restaurant critic has put it, parking is "laughably easy."

 

Our cultural attractions are world famous. For those of you who want to stop and smell the roses, there are hundreds of them, and thousands of other flowers and plants at Longwood Gardens, just 15 minutes down the road.

 

There's Winterthur, home to the world's premier collection of American decorative arts showcased in nearly 200 room settings.

 

There are fine art museums, such as the modern, expanding Delaware Art Museum, and the Brandywine River Museum, honoring many of the fine artists who have made our area their home, and highlighting the work of three generations of the legendary Wyeth family.

 

There's professional opera at the Grand Opera house, which has recently staged such presentations as Die Fledermaus, Madama Butterfly and MacBeth. Tickets are available at the box office on Market Street.

 

Of course, there are dozens, if not hundreds of other equally outstanding attractions, but I can't go into all of them here. Suffice to say that the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau is available to help guests and visitors choose, and available to help plan every facet of any trip.

 

But even more conveniently, we have a newly expanded Visitor's Center, located on I-95 between routes 273 and 896. From here, visitors can make hotel reservations 24 hours a day, to ensure that they'll be a room ready and waiting when they reach town.

 

In addition, there are travel counselors on duty 8 to 8 every day to answer questions and steer travelers in the right direction. Add to this a new sophisticated interactive computer video presentation, an exciting, well-planned driving tour, and mountains of maps and literature, and what you have is one "user-friendly" spot to spend a few enjoyable days.

 

But the best, I think, is yet to come.

 

Do you realize that Delaware is the only place on the east coast where an item marked $99.95 costs less than $100?

 

Our tax-free shopping makes us very popular indeed. Just look in the parking lot at any mall on Route 202, or on the streets around Market Street Mall--you'll see a lot of out of state plates. They know, but they're keeping it quiet. But you can pass it on.

 

Of course, there is a drawback to this. Ever since I moved to Wilmington, I can never figure out how much tip to give a waiter or waitress in a restaurant! The old lazy man's trick of tripling the tax just doesn't work when there's no tax to triple! But I work it out. Somehow.

 

Well, that's the word, and as I said a few minutes ago, I'd like to ask you to help us get it out. Let it be known to your business associates, organization colleagues and friends: whatever they're looking for, they can find it right here in the Greater Wilmington area.

 

So help them out. You'll be helping our community as well. Think of one organization or friend who is planning a meeting or trip in the near future, and write their name down on the card my associates are now passing around. If you know of several, we'll be glad to give you as many cards as you need.

 

Let us give them some information--some of the same information we gave you here today. And give them the chance to decide for themselves.

 

Personally, I think the choice will be an easy one, once they see all we have to offer here. If you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them.