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Nashville provides blueprint for tourism growth
RotaryWEB
Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitor Corp.
Ranked among America’s best tourism destinations, Music City USA can offer lessons in business growth for McMinnville.Planning, brand-promotion and “big events” powered the meteoric rise of Tennessee’s capital city, hosting 13.9 million visitors last year, according to Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitor Corp, in remarks Thursday at The Rotary Club of McMinnville.In each of the last five years, Nashville outpaced all other U.S. cities in tourism and convention revenue growth. By 2016, that sector generated $6 billion in sales, accounting for one-third of the state’s total for the hospitality industry, Spyridon said.“We stayed focused. We stayed consistent,” said Spyridon, noting the recent surge in growth followed a two-year planning process that involved 140 Nashville citizens representing every significant social, cultural, commercial and demographic constituency.