Baltimore, a city known for its meetings and conventions suffered a massive blow to its tourism with violent attacks that took place in the city on 28.04.15. These incidents lead to the cancellation of visitations and meetings, especially from the business sector causing huge loss to the MICE tourism sector of Baltimore.
Cancellations have come in from Door and Hardware Institute of its CoNEXTions convention which was to be held at the Baltimore Convention Center. There were 2,500 hotel rooms booked for this convention which was to bring 2000 attendees to Baltimore. But the situation was so adverse that the company decided to cancel the booking. The event was to take place on April 29-May 1.
Another company which cancelled its booking was American Heart Association who had a scheduled meeting from April 29-May 1 at the Hilton Baltimore.
Baltimore is ideal for meetings owing to its infrastructure. 29 conventions have already booked this year where an estimate of 206,000 people are scheduled to arrive in the city causing an economic gain of at least $138 million.
In a city that thrives in tourism, such incidents generally affect the tourism industry the worst. The prevailing situation could cause loss of millions or even billions.
Baltimore has reigned as a tourist favorite destination through the last 20 years. Its convention centre has grown in popularity. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, Power Plant Live!, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History are the prime attractions of Baltimore.
Baltimore’s Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that there will be a citywide curfew from 10p.m. to 5 am lasting for a week.
The government is planning to build a new security area around the inner harbour where many tourist sites are located.
The government is however rendering full support to groups who are braving the situation to hold their scheduled events. The Food Safety Summit is still continuing with its event which took off early this week.
