Rolando Aedo, Chief Operating Officer, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB)

Invest: sat down with Rolando Aedo, chief operating officer of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), to discuss how Miami’s tourism strategy has expanded beyond promotion into destination management, resident outcomes, and sustainability. “Tourism is a means to an end, and that end is improving the quality of life of our residents,” Aedo said.

What was the founding vision for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, and how has that vision carried forward as Miami has changed?
We were founded in 1985, so we’re about 40 years old as an organization, and I’ve been here for 30 of those years.

In the early 1980s, Miami was in a different place. Tourism had fallen off, and the city was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. In 1981, Time Magazine published the Paradise Lost cover story, and that moment reinforced what many leaders already felt: we needed to reset Miami’s narrative and rebuild confidence in the destination.

At the time, there were multiple small tourism offices: the county, the city of Miami, and Miami Beach. The message was fractured, and resources were thin. Community leaders wanted one unified voice, and they wanted it to be a private organization, not a public office, so that it could operate professionally and nimbly.

That’s the environment that led to the creation of the Convention & Visitors Bureau. From the start, it was built around two priorities: leisure travel and meetings and conventions. Meetings and conventions drive outsized impact because they fill hotel rooms, generate demand for meeting space, and create a broad ripple across restaurants, transportation, and local venues.

That structure still guides us. Today, roughly half of our organization focuses on leisure, including domestic and international markets. The other half focuses on meetings and conventions, organized around verticals such as life sciences, tech, insurance, and legal, because those sectors mirror the business mix we want to attract and support.

We also work in parallel with the Beacon Council. Their focus is business relocation and expansion, and our focus is bringing meetings and conventions that expose leadership teams to Miami. A major gathering can be a gateway experience. If executives come here and see an ecosystem that fits their needs, that can open the door to longer-term investment conversations.

What strategies are you using to drive economic impact through major conventions, signature events, and global gatherings?
A few years before the pandemic, we went through a strategic planning process with our staff and board. Historically, our mission statement sounded like most destination organizations: more visitors and more spend. But we made a conscious shift to put residents at the center of the mission.

Tourism is a means to an end, and that end is improving the quality of life of our residents.

That’s how we measure success. Tourism generates direct economic impact and helps support a diverse set of experiences residents value, from dining to cultural institutions.

On the fiscal side, we focus on how tourism reduces pressure on residents. Tourists pay a meaningful share of sales taxes and generate billions in tourism-related taxes. A portion supports marketing, but a larger share funds resident quality-of-life priorities. From a household standpoint, those tourism dollars help offset the tax burden, and the figure we cite locally is that it saves every household about $2,300 in taxes.

We also spend time on education and advocacy so residents and policymakers understand that connection. I was in Tallahassee recently communicating with legislators to reinforce how tourism taxes function and why it matters to protect the revenue streams that support both marketing and community benefits.

Also, we don’t ignore friction points. There are weekends and neighborhoods where tourism creates congestion and strain. Our responsibility is to acknowledge those pressures while building smarter management so residents don’t feel like they’re competing with the visitor economy.

How do you work with hospitality, tourism, and business partners to strengthen Miami’s competitive edge?
We are not a chamber of commerce, but we do operate a large member-based organization. We have about 1,500 members and partners across the visitor economy: hotels, restaurants, airlines, cruise lines, and small businesses. Members pay dues because they see value in the business leads and exposure we generate.

When a convention is considering Miami, they’re not only choosing the convention center. They need hotels and meeting space, and we play a broker role, matching meeting demand with the right hotel partners and helping align venues and room blocks.

We also build demand in ways that strengthen partners across the calendar. One example is Miami Spice Restaurant Month, which we launched after 9/11 to support restaurants. It has become a critical summer driver during one of the slowest times of year for many operators.

Access and connectivity are another priority. I work with Miami International Airport and airlines to build the business case for additional routes, sitting with route planners to demonstrate demand and strategic value.

We work closely with the Greater Miami & The Beaches Hotel Association, but the roles are distinct. The hotel association focuses on advocacy and operational issues. Our focus is sales and marketing: filling hotels with quality customers who support rate integrity and long-term brand positioning.

Miami is one of the more expensive destinations in the United States, and we view that as a strength. Our marketing targets an aspirational audience because the brand allows Miami to compete at a higher value tier, and higher rates also translate into higher tourism-tax collections that benefit residents.

Looking ahead, how do you see stakeholders aligning around initiatives that benefit residents and visitors while sustaining Miami’s growth?
The issues that impact residents increasingly impact visitors, too. Visitors are temporary residents, and the line is now essentially the same conversation.

Transportation is the clearest example. How people move around Miami affects daily life and the visitor experience. Workforce housing is another, especially for hospitality employees. If workers can’t afford to live near employment centers, or can’t reliably commute, service levels suffer, and that becomes a tourism challenge.

Traditionally, organizations like ours were built to sell a destination, not help manage its growth. But the field is evolving. DMO typically stands for Destination Marketing Organization, and now you’re seeing a shift to marketing and management. We will continue to market Miami, but we also need to be at the table to bring perspective on how growth, infrastructure, and quality-of-life issues affect the destination.

That’s why we’ve moved to a quality-over-quantity mindset and pay attention to places that have experienced overtourism backlash. We don’t want to be in a situation where visitors feel unwelcome, or residents feel the destination no longer works for them.

Sustainability is part of that future. We define it broadly, including responsible tourism. We partner with Green Key Global to certify hotels on conservation and best practices, and our goal is to have 200 hotels involved by the end of this fiscal year. We’re also launching work with the Green Restaurant Association so restaurants can adopt sustainability practices.

Visitors and meeting planners increasingly ask what a destination is doing on sustainability, and if two destinations are otherwise equal, they will choose the one with a clearer commitment. For us, that makes sustainability both the right thing to do and the right business decision.