Maximizing Group Business in Corpus Christi: Incentives Driven by the EIC

Visit Corpus Christi is a 501(c)(6) Destination Management Organization (DMO) whose mission is to strengthen the community by sharing Corpus Christi with the world. As the official tourism marketing, sales, and promotion agency for the destination, Visit Corpus Christi works to position the city as the Gulf Coast Capital for year-round experiences and events. The organization collaborates with governmental and community partners across the visitor economy to drive sustainable tourism, create memorable experiences, and fuel long-term economic growth. 

Our approach to using the Event Impact Calculator is to evaluate the full economic impact of group business and guide strategic decisions around incentive offerings. For every group, regardless of whether they receive incentives, we generate projected, definite, and post-event reports, ensuring consistency across our team and transparency with our stakeholders. The sales team focuses on definite impact, and their production is tracked using the EIC on both a quarterly and annual basis.

Given Texas’s highly competitive, rotating in-state association market business, post-event analysis is essential for identifying year-over-year trends and right-sizing future group incentive investments. This helps ensure that we’re neither over-incentivizing nor underinvesting, while remaining competitive in the meetings space. The Calculator has become our industry standard for reporting and validating results, eliminating discrepancies and delivering accurate, defensible data, which is also very valuable for media requests.

When sharing results externally, we utilize direct business sales data to maintain a conservative and credible reporting standard. While we typically prioritize conservative estimates, we remain open to using indirect impact figures when appropriate for future planning. Stakeholders frequently request highly detailed reports, and the EIC allows us to provide insights into job creation, tax revenue, and community reinvestment. We use this data not only to attract group business but to regularly educate elected officials, business leaders, and board members on the tangible value of meetings and events in Corpus Christi. 

Using the Event Impact Calculator has delivered measurable outcomes that have strengthened Corpus Christi’s group business strategy. The size and capability of the Hilliard Center align well with the scale of Corpus Christi’s market, but without an adjacent hotel, winning business against our competitors that have connected, and adjacent hotels often means offsetting meeting room rental and providing complimentary shuttle service for attendees. By leveraging EI reports alongside the Group Incentive Program, Visit Corpus Christi has successfully attracted larger groups, increased room nights, and justified greater allocation of Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue toward incentives. 

By demonstrating a clear return on investment through consistent, credible reporting, we secured an additional $200,000 in Group Incentive Program (GIP) funding from the City of Corpus Christi. While most of this funding previously supported meetings, a portion was allocated to other high-impact markets such as sports, film, and music events. EIC reporting also helped earn board approval for increased Tourism Public Improvement District incentive funding, tied to the destination’s largest citywide conference.

Sharing these economic impact insights has deepened stakeholder engagement, particularly with the Hilliard Center and downtown hotels, leading to stronger collaboration on competitive bids that benefit the entire destination, not just a single venue. 

Consistent use of the calculator has enabled the organization to quantify the true economic value of events, building confidence with stakeholders and reinforcing the importance of continued investment in meetings and events.

“The Event Impact Calculator has been instrumental in forecasting the future economic impact of group business in Corpus Christi. We utilize the data to help justify the incentive investment in attracting meetings and events to the destination. Ultimately, this work supports our hotel partners, driving Hotel Occupancy Tax that sustains our funding and fuels continued tourism growth.” — Visit Corpus Christi 

Our advice for other destinations using the EIC successfully is to be intentional and consistent across the organization. While the data you receive from planners may never be perfect, your team must use the tool in a standardized way across all departments – meetings, sports, festivals, and special events-to ensure accuracy, reliability, and credibility in every report you share. Establishing clear internal standard operating procedures for projected, definite, and post-event reports ensures that every calculation is aligned with industry standards and gives your team the confidence to report to stakeholders with credibility. Consistency builds stakeholder trust, while the calculator’s data-driven insights make it easier to justify incentives, secure funding, and communicate the value of events to your community.

Lean on the EIC’s built-in best practices and use them exactly as intended. Simple steps, like hovering over help icons for quick guidance, can improve accuracy and save time. For organizations new to the Calculator, we recommend learning from industry peers who are well-versed in the tool to understand its proper use and collaborating with your CRM vendor to understand best practices for creating leads, tagging, and post-event calculations. Regularly tap into the expertise of industry partners like Tourism Economics and Destinations International (DI) by exploring past webinars, attending live demos, and engaging with the EIC online community. Making this an ongoing practice ensures your team stays current on best practices and maximizes the value of the tool. 

The calculator not only legitimizes an organization’s ability to report accurate numbers to the media, community, and stakeholders, but it also enhances credibility by delivering reliable and defensible economic impact data. Finally, we recommend maintaining a clear view of group business from initial client contact through post-event reporting, and tracking details like pick-up, attendance, and room nights ensures a complete understanding of each event’s impact. This systematic approach builds trust, supports data-driven decision-making, and strengthens the case for continued investment in events that drive economic growth in communities.