That is, big in terms of attracting future conventions large enough to fill multiple hotels throughout the downtown area - and even into the suburbs.

"The entire bureau staff is recommitting itself to the goal of booking more citywide conventions," CVB President Scott Beck said last week when he unveiled the "Return of the Citywide" campaign theme at a quarterly meeting of the bureau's 850 local and regional business members. "Those targeted conventions, trade shows and meetings have a minimum of 750 room nights on peak and will utilize the Salt Palace Convention Center."

A room night is a hotel industry term that measures the number of nights that a hotel room is filled by a customer.

To accomplish this goal, the bureau has proposed an $8.7 million sales and marketing budget for 2008, a 16 percent increase over the $7.5 million allocated in the current year.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and the County Council first must sign off on the budget proposal, funded largely with transient room tax revenue that the CVB helps generate by attracting conventions and tourists to Utah's capital.

Beck noted that transient room taxes in 2007 are projected to be 7.75 percent higher than last year, and are expected to grow another 3.5 percent in 2008.

Besides that tax revenue, the CVB also will receive $450,000 from a separate tourist tax on hotels in Salt Lake County, $150,000 from the Utah Office of Tourism for ski promotions, $50,000 from the county's four ski resorts (Solitude, Brighton, Snowbird and Alta) and $110,000 from other marketing partnerships.

Beck said he plans to keep his sales staff busy this year in hope of booking conventions in the next year that ultimately will fill 480,000 room nights in Salt Lake County hotels.

He envisions the bureau having a representative at 15 industry trade shows where leads can be developed, and for CVB sales reps to make 44 trips apiece to targeted convention groups. The bureau also hopes to play host to 30 site visits by meeting planners for various associations looking for a place to stage future annual meetings.

A $58 million expansion that increased the Salt Palace's exhibit and meeting space to 679,000 square feet prompted the CVB push for more citywide conventions.

"We are positioned to compete effectively with larger cities and to go after these coveted citywide conventions," Beck said, citing Rotary International and the National Sheriff's Association as examples of two large meetings that Salt Lake City recently landed partly because of the larger Salt Palace.

Although securing conventions will be the main CVB focus, Beck said the success of the Ski Salt Lake program begets an enhanced effort this coming winter. The program allows out-of-state visitors staying at hotels in the county to buy discounted lift-ticket vouchers redeemable at any of the four resorts in the Cottonwood canyons.

Sales of those passes are projected to reach $3.5 million this year, up from $2.7 million in the winter of 2005-06 and last winter's estimate of $3.1 million.

mikeg@sltrib.com

* To book conventions that fill 480,000 "room nights" in Salt Lake County hotels

* To increase the number of hotel rooms that tourists fill by 10,500

* To boost Ski Salt Lake Super Pass sales by 15 percent, to $3.5 million

* To stage six "FAM tours" to familiarize outside media with Salt Lake County and to generate $4.95 million worth of free advertisement in articles

* To increase the number of unique visitors to VisitSaltLake.com by 30 percent

* To boost the number of registered e-mail contacts in the convention bureau's tourism database by 20 percent

Source: Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau