To mark National Travel and Tourism Week 2014, Philadelphia's hospitality industry assembled its ranks on North Broad Street to put a face on an industry that generates $10 billion a year in economic impact in Greater Philadelphia and employs 90,000 people. The backdrop of City Hall, the Pennsylvania Convention Center (left) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (right) captures the combined importance of convention business and leisure tourism to the city's economic health. In the crowd of nearly 300 were hotel employees, museum workers, National Park Rangers, small-business owners, sales and marketing professionals, a Mummer and Ben Franklin and Rocky re-enactors, along with the following leaders: Jack Ferguson, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau; Meryl Levitz, VISIT PHILADELPHIA™; John J. McNichol, Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority; Jim Cuorato, Independence Visitor Center Corporation; Greg Stafford, Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association; and Desiree Peterkin Bell, City of Philadelphia.

Credit: Photo by R. Kennedy for VISIT PHILADELPHIA™ & Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau

Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB), www.discoverPHL.com, a private non-profit membership corporation, is the official Tourism Promotion Agency for the City of Philadelphia globally, and the primary sales and marketing agency for the expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center. The PHLCVB competes with its counterparts worldwide for convention and tourism business. The organization has departments dedicated to the multicultural, sports, and life sciences markets. The PHLCVB incorporates the short code PHL, an open source graphic identifier for the City of Philadelphia into the Convention & Visitors Bureau brand identity. The graphic identifier and other assets for use by public, private and non-profit organizations can be found at www.PHLpartners.com. To request a login, email phlpartners@discoverphl.com

- See more at: http://www.discoverphl.com/media-room/press-releases/all/NTTW14#sthash.aPZHmcld.dpuf