Manager-Strategic Destination Engagement & Experiences

About the role

This highly collaborative, customer facing role leads the execution of destination activations, customer site inspections and hosted buyer experiences, representing Explore St. Louis at key industry tradeshows + conferences and working closely with sales professionals, hotel partners, attractions, restaurants, transportation providers, venues, and community stakeholders to create meaningful and memorable experiences that showcase St. Louis in compelling ways and positively influence booking decisions.

Essential Duties

• Cook up and execute customer site inspections and destination experiences that support convention sales efforts and influence booking decisions.
• Partner closely with convention sales professionals to design and manage meaningful, customized, and strategic customer experiences for prospective clients considering St. Louis.
• Cook up and execute customer site visits on behalf of sales professionals, including itinerary development, venue tours, hotel coordination, transportation, dining experiences, entertainment, and hospitality details.
• Develop creative and memorable “wow moments” that authentically showcase the St. Louis destination and strengthen customer engagement.
• Cook up and execute hosted buyer experiences, VIP activations, and customer events at industry conferences and major meetings.
• Organize and execute trade show strategy and execution at major industry conferences including, but not limited to, ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition, PCMA Convening Leaders, IMEX America, and other key meetings industry events.
• Cook up and execute booth activations, hosted events, appointments, logistics, partner participation, collateral materials, and customer engagement strategies for trade shows and conferences.
• Lead Explore St. Louis’ trade show strategy and execution at major industry conferences including, but not limited to, ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition, PCMA Convening Leaders, IMEX America, and other key meetings industry events.
• Serve as the primary liaison with member hotels, restaurants, attractions, transportation providers, entertainment venues, sports organizations, universities, and other community stakeholders to create best in class destination experiences.
• Collaborate with internal sales teams, marketing, convention services, facility operations, and leadership to align customer experiences with strategic sales priorities and destination positioning.
• Cook up and execute finalist presentations, customer activations, bid presentations, and hosted visits associated with major convention opportunities.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with destination partners to identify new experiences, activation opportunities, and customer engagement strategies.
• Maintain accurate records of customer experiences, trade show activity, activation performance, and sales support efforts within CRM systems.
• Develop standardized destination experience playbooks, hosted visit templates, and market specific site itineraries to improve consistency and execution.
• Measure and evaluate the effectiveness of customer experiences, site visits, hosted buyer programs, and trade show investments through reporting, surveys, and business outcomes.
• Represent Explore St. Louis at industry events, client functions, trade shows, and community partner meetings.
• Travel as required to support customer events, trade show participation, partner engagement, and organizational priorities. Work schedule may include evenings, weekends and holidays based on business needs.
• Perform other duties as assigned in support of organizational goals.

Skills & Qualifications

• Highly creative, hospitality centric and relationship oriented with a passion for storytelling and implementing flawless execution.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex logistics, customer experiences, or events with extraordinary attention to detail.
• Strong relationship building and partnership development skills.
• Creativity and ability to design memorable customer experiences and destination activations.
• Robust organizational and project management skills with demonstrated ability to simultaneously manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills.
• Hospitality mindset with strong customer service instincts and executive presence.
• Ability to work collaboratively across internal departments and external stakeholder groups.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and comfort with operating in a fast-paced environment.
• Industry experience in the destination marketing, hospitality, tourism, meeting, convention and event industries.
• Familiarity with the St. Louis region, venues, restaurants, hotels, attractions, and destination assets is preferred.

Success Factors

• Strong project management skills with attention to detail including the ability to cultivate strong relationships with partners to execute winning site visits, activations, and customer engagements that drive measurable business results.
• This position is based in the St. Louis metropolitan area and includes frequent interaction and engagement with customers, partners, site visits and hosted events.

KPIs

• Site Visit Win Rate and conversion of hosted customers to booked business.
• Hosted buyer and activation conversion metrics.
• Customer satisfaction scores and post-event survey feedback.
• Trade show and activation return on investment.
• CRM accuracy, engagement tracking, and reporting compliance.
• Sales team satisfaction and internal collaboration effectiveness.
• Partner engagement and stakeholder relationship development.
• Revenue and room night opportunities influenced through customer experiences and activations.
• Successful execution of high-quality customer events, site visits, and destination showcases.

Benefits

Explore St. Louis offers a robust benefit package including medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance as well as pension, paid holidays and PTO.