City Celebrates Success In Tourism Industry, Preps For Next Big Event
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia's Convention and Visitors Bureau celebrated 75 years of promoting the city on Wednesday with a party on Lincoln Financial Field. It was a fitting venue, since the next big event coming to the city is the 2017 NFL Draft.
In the last two years the city has hosted a papal visit and a presidential nominating convention. But, as the old joke goes, what do we do for an encore? Well, Convention and visitors bureau president Julie Coker Graham says, we host the NFL draft.
"It'll be the last weekend in April, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Chicago saw over 220,000 fans, 50% of them came from out of town," she said. "Forty-million people will view the draft over the three days and it will be live from Philadelphia on the Ben Franklin Parkway.
And then what?
"We'll see, let's just get through April of next year," Graham said. "We'll see. But there's a lot going on. Philadelphia's on fire, so we're really excited to be a part of that."