3 min read March 2024 — In an interview with Focus:, Cookie Smoak, president of the ATL Airport District Convention & Visitors Bureau, talked about the organization’s significant economic impact over the past year, generating over $84 million and confirming over 74,000 room nights. Smoak emphasized the importance of growth in the region, particularly in relation to convention business and hotel occupancy levels.
What has been the overall impact of the organization over the past year and how is the organization planning for growth?
Over the past year we have generated over $84 million in economic impact and confirmed over 74,000 room nights. We have generated a tremendous economic impact.
Any growth helps us sell the area, so obviously, we like to see growth. We are attracting more visitors to the area, which goes hand in hand with our economic development. When you are bringing more people in and they are spending more money, there is more money that goes back to the cities that can then be spent on infrastructure. We just opened a couple of new hotels in the Gateway Center, with talk of several new hotels coming. It definitely hinges on the ATL Airport District’s efforts to bring convention business to the area and keep our occupancy level in the high 80s.
College Park is working on a new development that is 300 acres and will be a live, work, play facility. This new development is going to augment what we are already doing, with more amenities to sell to our audiences. I work closely with the economic development directors for our cities to stay abreast of what is going on and to provide them feedback on our numbers, which they can pass on to investors, creating a greater opportunity for them.
What are some trends that visitors are expecting out of the region?
Our biggest sales tool is our convenience. We are adjacent to the world’s most traveled airport with a convention center campus connected via the ATL SkyTrain. Someone can fly in and be at the convention center or one of the Gateway Center hotels within three minutes of baggage claim. We are much more cost-effective than downtown as well. Our hotels are typically priced 30% less than those located downtown and without the parking fees and the traffic that is notoriously bad within Atlanta. It is a perfect location to fly in, have a meeting or conduct business and then leave seamlessly.
Our convention center is also the second-largest in the state, and we have one of the largest ballrooms in metro Atlanta. We also have a 5,000-seat arena right next door that is part of our package. We have a lot going for us, and the free transportation and the convenience of it are the most important factors that we sell.
How is technology changing the convention industry?
Technology drives everything we do and we are always looking for better technology to corral data and know our audience better. We must know where our people are coming from, the demographics of our attendees, and so on, so we can better advertise. AI, which will be a huge factor in the future, is another part of that. We are seeing more CVBs like ourselves doing virtual site inspections, so customers don’t need to get on a plane to see the center or hotels. Instead, they can be transported to the area virtually and do the visit from their home. Technology is vital to our industry and defines how we do business and how we advertise.
What challenges are impacting the industry right now and how are you navigating them?
We are very lucky in the airport area as it has come out of the pandemic with shining colors. We have been fortunate in that regard, and I attribute that to our location, size and affordability. The challenge of the pandemic, of course, was devastating to our industry and we had to step back, stop advertising and reinvent ourselves as a communications tool for our citizens instead of going after business since it was shut down. We have seen better than pre-COVID numbers over the last year and a half.
We are sitting in a good spot because of the size of our convention center, which gives us the flexibility to move space and groups around, as well as our proximity and access to the airport. We are always running into things like negativity in the economy, things that are going on with the government, things downtown and in big cities that affect us, and so on, but the challenges have not been terrible. Right now, our biggest challenge is finding enough space for all the businesses we want to book, but beyond that, fortunately we have been doing well.
As a leader, how do you foster a culture of innovation within your team?
I have one of the most amazing teams possible. We have a very open communication culture that involves going to other cities to learn. We are hungry for more information to improve ourselves in terms of best practices from colleagues globally. We share the data we learn among ourselves to further grow the organization.
My vice president of sales, for example, attended a conference where she learned about the organization Digital Edge which does a lot of advertising, promotion, and assistance with meetings. We then set up an appointment with them and next thing you know we are working with them. They are changing the whole paradigm of how we do business. We are doing things that are outside the box because we are investing in our people and their learning to get fresh ideas.
How are you maintaining the balance between welcoming tourists and supporting local communities?
It’s an educational process, and every now and then we have to educate the citizens of the community. A certain percentage of the hotel/motel tax funds us, but a certain percentage also goes into the general funds of each of our cities. That way the city can then invest back into the citizens.
Our marketing team also works hand in hand with our cities to assist with efforts to promote their community events. We strive to be an extension of their teams and show our full support of their event programming. We want to help foster pride in the amazing communities we serve and encourage metro Atlanta to see what’s going on in the District.
We have a program that we are trying to get off the ground called NAV (Neighbors Assisting Visitors). People don’t want to go to the tourist traps and want to experience local culture. Who better to do that than the citizens. In terms of social media, we put a lot of things out there that the public can participate in, such as our cycling event called Spin the District which gets international traffic.
What are your top priorities for the next two to three years?
Our top priority is always to increase room nights and economic impact to the area. We always want to be focused on garnering as much business for the area as we possibly can and to continue being proactive in our marketing of the area. We still run into areas where people do not know who we are and what we sell, so we want to appropriately advertise more to the right audience. We have come a long way with brand recognition, though. We want to do more with the information we are gathering while we travel and continue to spread the word.
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