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Al Hutchinson
By Special to The Daily Record
//November 5, 2019
Al Hutchinson
CEO
Visit Baltimore
In the two years Al Hutchinson has spent as president and CEO of Visit Baltimore, “Baltimore’s biggest cheerleader” has risen to the challenges the city has faced in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death and from Twitter insults from the President Donald Trump.
“I love what I do, I love the city of Baltimore and I’m passionate about promoting our close-knit community,” said Hutchinson, who leads the nonprofit dedicated to growing convention business and tourism in Charm City.
Hutchinson created an inclusive vision and strategic plan that sets to develop tourism assets in the city’s most underserved communities outside the Inner Harbor. He also gained increased tax revenue from hotels in a newly developed Tourism Improvement District, which state officials estimate will funnel nearly $7 million annually to tourism marketing efforts.
He was applauded for running full-page advertisements highlighting the city’s strengths in three major newspapers in quick response to President Trump’s Twitter insults of Baltimore.
Hutchinson serves on the boards of Baltimore Convention & Tourism, Visit Baltimore Education and Training Foundation, the Baltimore Hotel Corp, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, Inc. and U.S. Travel Association. He also serves as co-chair of the diversity and inclusion task force for Destinations International, trustee of Destination Marketing and serves on the advisory committee for the Religious Conference Management Association.
Hutchinson earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from The University of Alabama. He most recently served as president and CEO of Visit Mobile (Ala.), and has previously worked as sales manager for convention and visitors bureaus in Richmond and Virginia Beach, Virginia, Charlotte, North Carolina and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he rose to vice president of convention sales and services.
