As Vice President of Multicultural Business Development, Albert Tucker’s primary responsibility is to develop partnerships and alliances with community, civic and business leaders locally, nationally and internationally with the intent to attract a larger number of multicultural conventions, family reunions and meetings to Greater Fort Lauderdale. His focus is to embrace ethnic organizations such as African Americans, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans. According to Tucker in an interview with Sun Sentinel Senior Editorial Writer Douglas C. Lyons, many destinations never market to these groups, instead, they choose to always utilize marketing to the “mainstream.”
Tucker, a graduate of Leadership Broward Class XVIII serves on the Executive Board of the 100 Black Men of Greater Fort Lauderdale where he oversees the organization’s Mentoring Program. Additionally, Tucker has been appointed by the Governor to Chair the State’s Multicultural Committee for VISIT FLORIDA, overseeing a $14.5 million dollar marketing budget. Tucker serves on Meeting Professional International (MPI) International Multicultural Initiative Committee where he is directly involved in the development of the standards for International Hospitality Community relative to people of color. For the past three years, he has been recognized by Black Meetings & Tourism Magazine as one of the most influential Blacks in the tourism industry.
In just five quick years, the Multicultural Business Development Plan has more than tripled the tourism dollars brought in by the African American, Hispanic and Caribbean market and has played an integral role for quadrupling the Marketing and Advertising Budget for the Multicultural market.
Tucker is smart enough to know that people are not going to visit a place that they never hear about. He understands that it is about developing relationships––bringing in leaders of various ethnic organizations (especially on the national level) and allowing them to see what the area has to offer. This tactic has led Fort Lauderdale to hosting several conventions and retreats. Ebony Magazine recently listed Fort Lauderdale among the six areas in the country that families are choosing as their family reunion destination.
The multicultural tourism has brought in an excess of $20 to $25 million that wasn’t there before the multicultural blitz. Since the inception of the Multicultural Business Development division, a partial list of the organizations that have committed to bringing their conventions/meetings to Greater Fort Lauderdale:
• The National Forum for Black Public Administrators – April 2003
• The National Bowling Association (TNBA) – May 2003. TNBA brought in more than
12,000 bowlers visiting Greater Fort Lauderdale. Tournament attendees used more than
42,000 room nights during the 10 day period resulting in an economic impact of more
than $14.5 million dollars to Broward’s economy
• National Society of Hispanic MBA’s – November 2003
• United States Hispanic Contractors – August 2004
• National Urban League Executives Mid-Winter Conference – January 2005
• Asian American Hotel Owners Association – March 2005
• Dr. Bobby Jones Gospel Industry Retreat – June 2005
• World Youth Netball Championships – July 2005
• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority – July 2005
• Verizon Black Executives Annual Conference – June 2006
• International Association of Black Firefighters – August 2006
• National Association of Hispanic Journalists - July 2006
• National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives - 2007
While most of Tucker’s focus has been on the African American market, he has made inroads in the Hispanic market through strategic business alliances with organizations such as the El Heraldo Newspaper/Latin Power and the Latin Chamber of Commerce. These partnerships resulted in Greater Fort Lauderdale becoming the site of the 2004 US Hispanic Contractors Annual Conference, which marked the first time in the history of the organization that they held their conference outside of Texas.
Representing the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, Tucker served on Broward County’s International Trade and Tourism Committee, which oversees the Import/Export and Trade, programs for the County. The committee’s goal is to enhance International Trade and Tourism focusing on the Caribbean, South America and South Africa. As part of his outreach to the Caribbean population, Tucker participated in trade missions to Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and St. Lucia where he met with the Caribbean Governments.
In an article written by Darran Simon, he refers to a crusade to turn South Florida into a mecca for gospel music. This is an industry that topped out at about $140 million in CD sales in 2004. Albert Tucker is a lead player in that crusade. Says he, “I met Bobby Jones a little more than a year and a half ago and discussed with him the possibility of the development of a Gospel complex of education, heritage and preservation and actually utilizing his name to make that happen, and also utilizing the relationship in what we do from a tourism standpoint to bring that to fruition.” As a result, Tucker has been instrumental in bringing Bobby Jones into the area with his Gospel Industry Retreat and also making sure that he has specific relationships with the school board, the Broward Center of Performing Arts and other cultural entities within Broward County. Bobby Jones’ operation is currently located in Nashville, TN. The planned $45 million Gospel museum is expected to boost Broward County tourism significantly.
