‘Visit Austin’ here to stay

The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau has taken on a new name – Visit Austin – in a move that is expected to make the organization and its services easier to find. The ACVB moniker remains as its name in some non-public facing capacities, but the “doing business as” Visit Austin change goes into effect just before the industry’s National Travel and Tourism Week kicks off on May 7. Tom Noonan, president and CEO of the newly rebranded organization, said the more SEO-friendly name is something of a trend in the industry. “Convention and visitors bureaus all over the U.S. are moving away from the traditional CVB titles because the terminology doesn’t truly capture the role of what we are trying to accomplish, especially in Austin,” he said in a prepared statement. Noonan’s group is busy these days, making the case with Austin leaders for a proposed expansion of the Austin Convention Center that could cost as much as $600 million. Under most scenarios City Council would need to vote to utilize money from the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue to pay for the expansion.