This has been an exciting and very active month for the Meet Boston team and the industry in general. Earlier this week we hosted our 5th annual Regional Career Fair, which featured over 50 Meet Boston partners and 600 job seekers. The career fair is just one of many critical collaborations that Meet Boston has undertaken in partnership with Conan Harris & Associates (CHA). We also announced an important step in our supplier diversity initiative with CHA this month - the launch of our supplier portal, NectariQ. We will be setting up Q&A sessions for our partners over the next several weeks.
FIFA World Cup is fast approaching. Last week we hosted another press conference at City Hall Plaza to announce more details on Fan Fest dates and logistics. We hope you were able to tune into our World Cup webinar on April 8. Here is a link to find both the webinar and the presentation deck. Meet Boston is working hard to compile as many World Cup-related events as possible, which we are promoting via this landing page. If you are hosting anything that you’d like us to amplify, please submit details via The Hub or to events@meetboston.com.
Our visitation numbers for the early summer are looking strong. According to industry data reports (Sojern, US Travel) flight and hotel bookings for the World Cup period have seen sharp increases. Boston is performing particularly well, with YoY flight bookings up 17%. We expect a surge in hotel bookings to follow suit. Additionally, we’ve seen some great data on ticket sales, indicating a very healthy breakdown of where tickets are being purchased, roughly 1/3 regional, 1/3 domestic (non-New England), and 1/3 international.
Last week we released a great podcast episode with Vikki Spruill, President & CEO of the New England Aquarium. The podcast went live on Earth Day, which was intentional given that the conversation revolved around advocacy, action and sustainability, and how the aquarium is championing these efforts. Upcoming episodes will focus on summer events and festivals.
This month we were very proud to sponsor several important events, including the BECMA Vanguard Awards, Lanterns & Luminaries at Old North Church, and the Japan Festival on Boston Common.
