Results tagged “visitorsbureau”

Organic short documentary showing the cool, hidden life of Houston, America's 4th Largest city. Features interviews with George Foreman, Chloe Dao, Lauren Anderson and others. Musical performances by Beetle and Michael Ward. Great cinematography and editorial. Produced by Merideth Melville. Directed by W. Ross Wells. This is a very well done documentary that runs 12:14 and was made in part by Continental Airlines and is linked with visithoustontexas.com which is a site for The...

Good morning, Houston. Today's question: How cool are you? According to Ken Hoffman, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau is trying to find the 10 coolest people in Houston to form a focus group that'll help promote the city. Hoffman saw the list of nominees and wasn't impressed — but seriously, when was the last time anyone was impressed by one of the GHCVB's marketing plans? So here's the deal: If you can...

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how a marketing firm suggested that adding "Island" to the city of Galveston's name would make tourists flock to the island. Presumably, tourists would then realize that it actually is an island, and everyone knows islands = fun (well, OK, there are some exceptions). But if you got excited about the possibility of the City of Galveston Island, simmer down: The Galveston City Council pretty much shot...

It hasn't been the best year for Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau chief Jordy Tollett: Earlier this year he was accused of liquid lunching, followed by a sudden leave of absence; then, after he came back, he apparently got dissed by a local hotel group. And now, KHOU reports that it looks like Tollett's number may be up: Mayor Bill White is urging GHCVB officials to find someone else to lead the bureau when Tollett's contract expires early next year.

Police have arrested Stevdrick Jackson in connection with the murder of a southeast Houston convenience store clerk Monday Roderick Fountain, a suspect in the disappearance of 3-year-old Kendrick Jackson, tried to get his wife to lie about who owned a gun in a jail phone call he didn't know was being recorded Jordy Tollett is back in charge of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau after a temporary leave of absence A judge granted...

Looks like Jordy Tollett has sidestepped a potentially nasty situation: The city visitors bureau chief said yesterday he'll cash in his vacation time and a medical leave to "seek professional help for an unspecified condition." Tollett told the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau's executive committee his plans during a brief meeting Thursday morning.

Ever since Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau head Jordy Tollett went blond back in 2003, we've suspected there was something of the wild child about him — and now we know what: Earlier this week, KPRC's cameras followed Tollett around and filmed him whiling away the hours with liquid lunches. And that may cost Tollett his job, the Chronicle reports. Channel 2 spotted Tollett spending a two-hour lunches sitting at bars at the Front...

So we noted earlier this week that people who attended this year's Essence Music Festival whined about how Houston isn't New Orleans. And now festival organizers have joined in, saying Houston apparently didn't realize just how important the three-day music, shopping and education festival was.

As the curtain falls tonight on the 2006 Essence Music Festival, marking the end of the event's first year away from New Orleans, organizers expect other cities to start trying to make sure it never goes back. The three-day festival is a potential windfall for convention and tourism bureaus: It draws thousands of visitors and their wallets, and it could help position a city as a minority tourist destination. At least that's what Houston hopes....

Didn't Houstonist tell you that the state's crackdown on drunks in bars would change when it started affecting tourism? Ah, we were so right: The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has announced it will conduct an internal investigation of the program and will start retraining officers. TABC spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said officers will continue to arrest exceedingly drunk people, but the commission is taking complaints — of which there have been many — seriously.

It looks like the Texas' stepped-up enforcement of the no-drunks-in-bars rule is starting to hit the state where it really hurts: in the pocketbook. Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he's gotten calls from hundreds of people concerned about the crackdown. Two groups — one with almost 25,000 people and another of several thousand — have said they're not considering Dallas as a convention site because of the...

So here's a different take on Houston vs. Dallas: Our friends to the north seem to have pulled ahead of Houston in luring gay tourists, at least according to KPRC. Apparently, Dallas has trumped Houston in GLBT tourism by adding a gay tourism area to its Convention and Visitors Bureau website. As the site says:

The rivalry between Houston and Dallas isn't news — but media outlets in both cities occasionally try to make news out of it. The latest example: a story from KTVT in Dallas, which skims over the differences between the cities and comes to no real conclusion. Bragging rights become most important when it comes to bringing in tourists. “Probably Houston has seen it's zenith if you will. In Dallas we have not peaked yet...