SFTravel Spearheads Community-Wide Effort to Local Meetings

The San Francisco Travel Association (SF Travel) is launching a promotional campaign today to encourage local businesses to reinvigorate San Francisco's hotels, venues, restaurants, and retail by hosting their meetings in the city by the bay. The goal is to drive bookings at local venues by local businesses of all sizes to kickstart the meetings industry now that clear and specific guidelines are in place.

“Between the city's rising vaccination rate among its residents, the adherence to common-sense safety protocols, and the preparedness of our venues, San Francisco is among the safest places for any group to gather right now,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of San Francisco Travel, the official destination marketing organization for the City and County of San Francisco. “I encourage all of our industry partners to be a part of this collaborative effort to reinvigorate our city by meeting in San Francisco, or by inviting their stakeholders to do so. Let’s get the word out together!”

Under the motto “Our Gate is Open – Meet Local!”, SF Travel has created a marketing platform for partners who are either planning their own meeting, or have clients who might be planning a meeting in the near future. Organizations whose stakeholders or partners typically host meetings and events, like hotels, event venues and restaurants, have also been asked  to encourage their partners’ participation in spreading the word to Meet Local. Partner organizations who have already committed to participate in the campaign include the SF Chamber of Commerce, the Hotel Council, the Bay Area Council, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, and multiple Community Benefit Districts and Business Improvement Districts.

The key element of the campaign platform is a toolkit which SF Travel has created and made available to all partners at meetlocal.ourgateisopen.com. Besides a campaign logo, the toolkit includes imagery, sample copy for email, social media and newsletters, the hashtag  #MeetLocalSF, and more.

“Throughout the pandemic, our business owners and their employees have shown tremendous resilience and strength,” said Rodney Fong, President and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. “This campaign is a great opportunity, especially for smaller meeting venues, to raise awareness on how important it is that we all support each other during this period of recovery. And it will help our members secure much-needed additional business in the coming weeks and months.”

"San Francisco's gate is open and so are we," said Kevin Carroll, President & CEO of the Hotel Council of San Francisco. "San Francisco is known as the 'City that knows how' and we proved that during the pandemic by crushing the COVID curve greater than any large American city. We know how to keep our workers and our guests safe and healthy. Our hotels have never been more ready to welcome back visitors to everyone's favorite destination."

“Our industry has weathered the storm of the pandemic. Now the hard work of recovery begins,” said Howard Pickett, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer of SF Travel. “The variety of venues across the city means there are plenty of options suited for meetings of all sizes. The more partners are using the creative assets and the messaging that we have created for them, the more successful we all will be in amplifying the key message that meetings are now back in San Francisco. That's why we're partnering with our fellow industry leaders to encourage San Francisco businesses to Meet Local.”

With greater availability and reduced rates, now is the perfect time to plan a memorable event in the City by the Bay. Anybody who is interested in organizing a meeting in San Francisco, can also contact the Convention Sales & Services team at San Francisco Travel for their help. Businesses interested in joining the campaign can visit meetlocal.ourgateisopen.com to access the promotional assets.

For information on San Francisco reservations, activities and more, visit www.sftravel.com