Visit West Hollywood has announced the appointment of Tom Kiely as chief executive officer effective Oct. 17. Kiely currently serves as EVP, tourism of San Francisco Travel Association. His other past experience includes San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences, Atlantis The Palm – Dubai, and Universal Studios Hollywood.
This fiscal year the city expects to collect $23 million in room tax revenue, an increase of 11% over the prior year. West Hollywood welcomed approximately 1.3 million visitors, supporting 5,500 tourism-related jobs. In 2014, VisitWeHo restructured to form a tourism business improvement district, providing increased funding for tourism marketing. Kiely replaces Brad Burlingame, who served in that role for nearly 20 years until his passing in December.
From Inbound Report: DMO veteran Brian Said moves from executive director of tourism at the Philadelphia CVB to vice president of global development for Choose Chicago.
Said has served at the Philadelphia bureau since 2013 following more than six years as director of travel trade development at the San Diego Tourism Authority.
David Whitaker, formerly Brand USA (previously also the top chief of Tourism Toronto and EVP and CMO at the Greater Miami CVB), accepted the post of CEO at Choose Chicago in June [Something Brief, 6/21/2016].
Whitaker replaced Don Welsh, now at the helm of Destination Marketing Association International [Something Brief, 1/23/2016].
In news from the agency front, Development Counsellors International announces the appointment of Michelle Bamford to lead its Toronto office. Bamford has worked with worked with the Canadian Tourism Commission at DDB and in-house for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts (Canada).
Among the DMO client roster at DCI are Visit California, Chattanooga CVB, Finger Lakes Wine Country, Visit Huntington Beach, Visit Oakland, Visit Mendocino, Visit North Dakota, Travel Iowa, The Palm Beaches, Palm Springs, U.S. Travel Association and more.
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