Mark Calitri | Leadership, Performance & Destination Marketing

 Owensboro is having a strong fall, and the numbers tell the story. September hotel occupancy reached an all-time September record of 70%. October revenue is running 21.1% ahead of last year, and room tax collections are exceeding projections by more than 15%. For Mark Calitri, President and CEO of Visit Owensboro, those numbers reflect something important: More people are choosing Owensboro, Kentucky, for sporting events, conventions, festivals, business, and weekend getaways. And when those visitors arrive, they spend money in our hotels, restaurants, attractions, and local businesses. Sports Tourism Is Bringing More Visitors to Owensboro One of the biggest contributors to Owensboro's fall tourism performance has been sporting events. During October 4–10, hotel occupancy increased from 57% last year to 75% this year. That's a significant jump for one week, and sports tourism played an important role. The inaugural Hockey on the Ohio tournament brought four American Collegiate...

  Senator Gary Boswell Recognizes Mark Calitri, Visit Owensboro CEO, for Kentucky Tourism's Economic Impact During the 2026 Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum, Kentucky State Senator Gary Boswell recognized Mark Calitri, President and CEO of Visit Owensboro, while discussing the economic power of tourism and its ability to generate revenue for Kentucky. Boswell pointed to Owensboro's tourism success as an example of how attracting visitors, conventions, sporting events, and festivals brings new spending into communities and generates tax revenue for the state. Under Mark Calitri's direction, Visit Owensboro has worked to grow tourism through events, sports, conventions, and attractions that bring visitors to Owensboro and Daviess County. From the Owensboro Convention Center and Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum to Barbecue & Barrels and major sporting events, Owensboro continues to demonstrate the economic value of tourism. Boswell's comme...

  Owensboro hotels reached 70% occupancy in September, the highest September occupancy on record. The number tells a bigger story about what is happening across our community. September brought a strong mix of conventions, sporting events and community events to Owensboro. The Kentucky Justice Association brought new convention business to the community with the help of local attorney Chris Rhoads. The Kentucky ambulance conference brought attendees to Owensboro and included training at Kentucky HealthForce, putting one of our community’s newest assets to work in a new way. Sports also played a major role. Owensboro hosted the All “A” volleyball tournament, Kentucky 2A volleyball and soccer, and Special Olympics Kentucky State Softball. The Owensboro Air Show and Groovin’ on the Green added to a month that kept hotels, restaurants and businesses busy. But tourism and events are only part of the story. The work of GOEDC and our economic development partners continues to bring new bu...

  NEVER Waste the Opening of Your Next Meeting or Speech By Mark Calitri | Public Speaking & Leadership NEVER, and I mean NEVER, open an important meeting or speech with “Good morning, everyone” or “My name is…” You've just wasted the one moment when you had everyone's attention. Whether you're presenting to a board of directors, delivering a keynote speech or pitching an important idea, your opening sets the tone for everything that follows. You've got seconds to make people want to listen. How to Command the Room From the Start Get straight to the reason you're in that room. Lead with the problem that matters or the question everyone wants answered. Give your audience a reason to listen before you introduce yourself. I've sat through plenty of presentations where the speaker lost the room before getting to the point. A strong opening changes that. It gets people thinking, creates interest and gives you their attention when it matters most. Watch the video ...

Kentucky Native Hannah Durbin: From Richmond to the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds One of the best parts of my work with Visit Owensboro is meeting people whose stories are bigger than the event that brought them here. Capt. Hannah Durbin is one of those people. Hannah is a Richmond, Kentucky native and serves as the Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. She returns to Kentucky this week as the Thunderbirds headline the Owensboro Air Show. I recently had the chance to interview Hannah through my work as President of Visit Owensboro. What stood out was how unlikely this path once seemed. Hannah first learned about the U.S. Air Force Academy during her junior year of high school. She had no military background and leaving Kentucky was a big step. “I didn’t have any military members in my life at the time, and I was scared,” Hannah told me. “Luckily, I had some phenomenal mentors who saw before I did that it was a great fit for me.” That decision opened doors she could ...

  Owensboro Hotels Are Full. This Is What Winning Looks Like. Sometimes the best measure of tourism success is simple: Are people coming, and are they spending the night? This weekend in Owensboro, the answer is clear. The Messenger-Inquirer reports that Owensboro hotels are nearly sold out as two major events come together: the Owensboro Air Show , featuring the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, and the Special Olympics Kentucky State Softball Tournament . Downtown hotels have been sold out for months. Hotels across Owensboro are filling up, and some Special Olympics teams are having to look outside the community for rooms. “We are trying to get the Special Olympics a few more rooms,” Mark Calitri, President & CEO of Visit Owensboro , told the Messenger-Inquirer . “We are running out of rooms at the Courtyard at Kentucky 54,” Calitri added. That tells you something. An estimated 55,000 to 60,000 people are expected along Owensboro’s riverfront for the Air Show. At the same time, ...

 Nearly 20 years after Nicky Hayden became MotoGP World Champion, his impact is still being felt in Owensboro. Owensboro Living recently featured Nicky’s championship legacy and included comments from Mark Calitri, President and CEO of Visit Owensboro, about what that legacy still means to the community. Mark Calitri told the magazine, “Everywhere he raced, people knew exactly where he was from, and he proudly carried the name Owensboro with him.” That connection is still real today. Visit Owensboro regularly hears from visitors looking for the Nicky Hayden statue, the Hayden brothers’ Walk of Fame plaque and information about the annual memorial ride. As Mark Calitri explained, some visitors come to Owensboro specifically because of Nicky. Others discover his story while they are here for a tournament, convention, festival or river cruise. One story in the article says a lot about Nicky. The morning after winning the world championship, he got up early and went running. He had rea...

  What Strong Destination Management Looks Like in Owensboro Tourism doesn’t operate by itself. In Owensboro, one of our priorities this year has been rebuilding and strengthening the relationship between Visit Owensboro, the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce and GO EDC. Each organization has a different job, but we’re all working for the same community. “A strong community works better when the organizations helping shape it know what each other is working on and where they can help,” said Visit Owensboro President Mark Calitri. For destination management organizations, that matters. Success isn’t just measured by the events you book, visitors you bring in or hotel rooms you fill. It also shows up in the relationships you build at home. We’ve made a point this year to communicate more, show up for each other and better understand what each organization is working on. Our next step is bringing the boards and staffs of all three organizations together to share priorities and bui...

  Messenger-Inquirer: Tourism Means Big Business in Owensboro Don’t take our word for it. The Messenger-Inquirer recently took a closer look at the growing impact of tourism in Owensboro-Daviess County, and the numbers tell the story. Daviess County’s tourism economy reached $262.9 million , an increase of $13.2 million in one year and the largest one-year increase in more than 20 years. The article also highlighted Owensboro’s record hotel occupancy, more than 2,000 tourism-supported jobs , and the impact of bluegrass, bourbon and major events like ROMP and BBQ & Barrels. Visit Owensboro President Mark Calitri told the Messenger-Inquirer, “These numbers don’t just set a new record. They represent the largest year-over-year increase in tourism impact in the history of Owensboro-Daviess County.” The Messenger-Inquirer says it best: tourism has become big business in the Owensboro area. Read the full Messenger-Inquirer story   https://www.hometownregister.com/from-bluegras...

  Saying No Is Easy. Finding a Way Takes Leadership. Someone brings you a great idea. What happens next? Too many leaders immediately start looking for everything that could go wrong. Why it costs too much. Why the timing is bad. Why it’s been tried before. Saying no is easy. Not every idea will work. That’s reality. But the best leaders don’t look for a reason to kill an idea before they’ve worked through it. They listen. They collaborate. They get the right people involved and ask: “What needs to change for this to work?” That one question changes the conversation from why we can’t to how we might . You may still end up at no. But don’t start there. Work with your people. Work the problem. Find a way to make the good ideas work. — Mark Calitri Winning Leadership P.S. Before you say no, find out what it would take to say yes.

  What Are You Working So Hard For? Most of us spend a lot of our lives chasing something. A better job. More money. The next promotion. A bigger win. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to succeed. I’m competitive. I like to win. I believe in working hard and holding yourself to a high standard. But at some point, you have to ask a bigger question: What am I working this hard for? Maybe the scoreboard isn't just what you accomplish. Maybe it also includes the people around you. Who did you help? Who did you encourage? Who got an opportunity because you opened a door? Who is better because you showed up? That’s where service comes in. It doesn't mean lowering your goals or losing your competitive edge. It means realizing that your success can be bigger than you. That’s a scoreboard worth paying attention to. — Mark Calitri Winning Leadership Watch & Follow Winning Leadership YouTube:  https://youtube.com/shorts/A13D9PibjCY  Instagram:    http...

  Don’t Just Share the Attention. Build on It. Only In Kentucky recently called Owensboro “Kentucky’s Most Underrated Weekend Getaway.” That is the kind of recognition every destination wants. My first reaction was simple: share it. My second thought was better. What else can we do with it? That question changed the value of the article. We shared the recognition on Visit Owensboro’s Facebook page, but we did not want it to end there. The article gave us a strong outside voice saying something positive about Owensboro, and that created an opportunity to tell the story in our own way. So we built on it. We created a Visit Owensboro blog around the weekend getaway idea. We pulled photos and video we already had in Google Drive. We started repurposing that content for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube. The article gave us the spark. Our job was to see how far we could carry it. That is a useful marketing lesson for any business or organization. When somebody else reco...

Nine state championships. Thousands of visitors. More than $1 million in economic impact. That's what the Kentucky 2A Championships brought to Owensboro last year. And they're coming back. During the 2026-27 school year, Owensboro will host nine Kentucky 2A state championships , bringing athletes, coaches and families from 55 schools across Kentucky. Last year's championships brought an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 visitors and generated $1,004,589 in economic impact . That's real money being spent in Owensboro hotels, restaurants, stores, gas stations and local businesses. The championships will take place across the community at Owensboro Country Club, Brescia University, Owensboro High School, the Owensboro Sportscenter, Jack C. Fisher Park and Apollo High School. Owensboro Health continues as a major partner, while Maui's Indoor Theme Park gives visiting families another reason to get out and experience Owensboro. There's another win here too. Thousands of Kent...

 The delays at the Bluegrass Fieldhouse in Owensboro, Kentucky have cost us business. There’s no way around that. The Messenger-Inquirer recently reported that five major sports weekends have been lost because of the delays, with Owensboro hotels losing an estimated 10% to 20% occupancy on those weekends. But think about what that tells us. As President & CEO of Visit Owensboro , I’ve watched the sports pipeline build firsthand. If we’re losing that much business without the Bluegrass Fieldhouse open, what happens when we have seven full-size courts filled with athletes and families? That’s the opportunity in front of Owensboro. We’ve moved our Owensboro sports tourism focus to 2027, and the pipeline is strong. The Bluegrass Fieldhouse will allow us to compete for tournaments and sporting events we simply couldn’t host before. Those athletes bring parents, coaches and families who stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores and spend money throughout the c...

  What Does 4,256 Really Tell You About Pete Rose? On August 14, 1986, Pete Rose collected the 4,256th and final hit of his Major League career. But what does 4,256 really tell you? It tells you Pete could hit a baseball. But that’s not the lesson. You don’t get to 4,256 on talent alone. You get there with hustle. Effort. Showing up. Rolling up your sleeves and doing the work when nobody is handing you anything. Pete played the game hard. He competed. He kept getting back in the box. That matters far beyond baseball. A lot of people have talent. A lot of people have good ideas. A lot of people talk about what they’re going to do. But at some point, the talking has to stop. You have to put in the effort. That’s one of the lessons I keep coming back to with Pete Rose. He didn’t build the greatest hit total in baseball history with one big swing. He built it one at-bat at a time. Get on base. Win the next at-bat. Keep going. That mindset is a big part of The Winning Leadership Playbo...

  What Can the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Teach Us About Marketing? In 2021, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile came to Owensboro, Kentucky, for a trade show at the Owensboro Convention Center. Of course, I got a picture with it. But think about this. Why did I take the picture? Why do people stop when they see the Wienermobile? Why are we still talking about a giant hot dog on wheels more than 80 years after Oscar Mayer first put one on the road? Because people notice it. That's the first job of marketing. Get noticed. You can have a great product, a great event or a great community. But if nobody notices, how are you going to drive business? In destination marketing, we're competing every day for visitors, conventions, sporting events and attention. So here's the question I keep coming back to: Are we giving people something worth talking about? Not another ad that looks like everybody else's. Something they'll remember. Something they'll share. Something that makes t...

  By Mark Calitri, President & CEO, Visit Owensboro When people see another national championship or major tournament announced in Owensboro, they see the result. They don't always see the strategy behind it. As President & CEO of Visit Owensboro, I've believed from day one that Owensboro could become one of America's premier sports destinations. That belief became our strategy. We didn't set out to land one big event. We set out to build a destination that event organizers trust and want to return to year after year. At Visit Owensboro, my team and I understand that every successful tournament becomes our best sales pitch for the next championship. That's why we focus on execution, relationships and delivering an experience that exceeds expectations. No destination is built alone. The City of Owensboro, Daviess County, Owensboro Parks & Recreation, the OVG360 team at the Owensboro Convention Center, our hotel partners, local sports organizations and cou...

 Owensboro, Kentucky, is growing as a tourism, sports, convention, and entertainment destination. In 2025, visitors spent a record $262.9 million in Owensboro and Daviess County . Tourism supported 2,034 jobs and generated $20 million in state and local tax revenue . Those results came from a clear strategy. Visit Owensboro has focused on increasing conventions, building sports tourism, supporting major events, and giving people more reasons to visit. Owensboro now hosts more conventions, national tournaments, festivals, concerts, and special events. Hotel performance has reached record levels, and new developments are creating even more opportunities. The Bluegrass Fieldhouse will expand indoor sports tourism. The Ben Hawes pickleball complex will bring new tournaments. Owensboro Racing & Gaming, Maui’s Indoor Theme Park, the riverfront, local attractions, and major community events continue to strengthen the visitor experience. Tourism is economic development. Visitors stay ...

Some of the best business lessons come from the strangest places. One of the best I've ever heard is this: Eat your own dog food. It sounds ridiculous until you understand what it means. Don't expect others to do something you're not willing to do yourself. If you expect your team to be prepared, be the most prepared person in the room. If you expect your team to work hard, they ought to see you working even harder. If you expect everyone to be on time, don't let them beat you to the office. If you expect people to own their mistakes, own yours first. People pay far more attention to what you do than what you say. That's how respect is earned. That's how winning cultures are built. Performance starts with the example you set every day. That's what "eat your own dog food" means. I'm curious. What's one standard you refuse to compromise? Watch Mark Calitri explain how preparation, effort and setting the right example can improve team performa...

 Sports tourism is changing, and Owensboro is changing with it. For years, communities competed for baseball, softball, basketball and soccer tournaments. Those sports will always matter. But today's fastest-growing opportunities look different, and Owensboro is ready. We're investing in traditional sports while welcoming what's next—pickleball, cornhole, wrestling, cheer and dance, esports, fishing tournaments and other emerging competitions. If people compete, we want Owensboro on the list. Why? Because every tournament brings visitors. They fill hotel rooms, eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores and discover everything else our community has to offer. That's why sports tourism is economic development. And the momentum keeps growing. New state and national events continue choosing Owensboro. The Bluegrass Fieldhouse and Ben Hawes Pickleball Complex will help us compete for even more regional and national championships. Others are noticing. The Owensboro Times re...