CONVENTION SALES

The Visit Greater Palm Springs (VGPS) sales team ended the year strong and had an exceptional fourth quarter to achieve 117% of the 2022 room night goal, or 182,105 room nights, to a goal of 150,000 room nights, which surpassed the stretch goal of 170,000 room nights. One group in particular that was booked—MLS Soccer NEXT Group—generated 12,702 room nights, actualized in December, which tends to be a need time for the destination.

Lead volume surpassed 2019 levels by 35%, and new lead distribution, which has been a focus for the sales team, surpassed 2019 levels by 30%. The top booked market segments were trade and commercial, health and medical, and manufacturing and distribution followed by financial.

Trips & Travel
The sales team achieved such extraordinary results due to their extensive travel, which allowed them to connect face-to-face with our customers at tradeshows, sales missions, and conferences.  

In November and December, the team represented the destination at 17 events:

• Nov 2: NorCal PCMA Bamies
• Nov 2-4: Visit California Southwest Roadshow
• Nov 6-8: 3-Day Smart Meetings one-on-one appointments
• Nov 7-9: SITE Northeast & NYC PCMA Education
• Nov 10: Prestige Tradeshow
• Nov 13-16: FICP Annual
• Nov 14-17: HPN Annual Partner
• Nov 15-18: ASAE Partner Summit
• Nov 17-20: American Express AXInteraction
• Nov 28-30: Connect D.C
• Nov 29-Dec 2: ConferenceDirect Forum
• Nov 30-Dec 2: PCMA – Philadelphia Chapter Annual Meeting & Holiday Event
• Dec 5-6: ASEA – Conscious Inclusion at Westin Rancho Mirage
• Dec 7-9: ConferenceDirect CEO Summit
• Dec 8-9: Northeast CVB Holiday Event in NYC
• Dec 12-14: Site So Cal Holiday Showcase
• Dec 13-15: Season Spectacular

Site Visits and FAMs
To kick-off 2023, Visit Greater Palm Springs hosted 20 meeting executives and journalists along with their guests at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Gala earlier this month. One of the guests who joined us is the Editorial Director of Smart Meetings, from which we received a wonderful feature article write-up Palm Springs Shows Red Carpet Style. In her article, she wrote: "Visit Greater Palm Springs won the award for making everyone feel special with themed gifting, dining, and activities all week." This article is featured on the SMART Meetings homepage.

Looking Ahead
With a fully staffed sales team, our focus in 2023 will be finding new group business to impact need times; continuing to maximize our strategic partnerships; and hosting more FAM visits to provide meeting planners a firsthand experience of the unique and myriad options when it comes to hosting a meeting in Greater Palm Springs. 

Below are dashboards showing our year-to-date non-legacy team production and open tentative leads. An arrow in the upper right-hand corner of a box indicates additional information is available.