Episode 009 Boston's Best--Selling Cities In Travel & Tourism With Martha Sheridan

Conversations With Carole

Ever wonder what it's like to work in the C-suite in the hospitality industry? How do you sell a city or region with enthusiasm and effectiveness? Today, we're talking to a travel and tourism powerhouse that is turning this upside down by orchestrating a monumental shift to reveal Boston as the ultimate international destination. My guest is Martha Sheridan, the President and CEO of what used to be called the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau… Now renamed Meet Boston. Hello this is Carole Copeland Thomas and you're listening to Conversations With Carole

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Martha J. Sheridan, President & CEO, Meet Boston

Martha J. Sheridan brings more than 30 years of destination marketing experience to her role as President & CEO of Meet Boston, formerly known as the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau (GBCVB). A seasoned tourism leader, she provides strategic direction to the 950-member organization in its mission to generate a robust visitor economy for the region. Annually, the tourism, travel, and hospitality sector generates more than $20 billion dollars for the greater Boston economy.

Sheridan holds and has held leadership positions with several local, regional, and national industry organizations. She is on the board and Executive Committee of the U.S. Travel Association (USTA) and currently co-chairs USTA’s “Meetings Mean Business” coalition.

Sheridan was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Destinations International Foundation, which focuses on research, advocacy, workforce initiatives, and DEI. She is a leading member of the Boston Soccer 2026 committee that worked to successfully secure FIFA World Cup 2026 matches to take place at Gillette Stadium. Sheridan also played a key role in the winning bid to host the 2023 Army-Navy Game at Gillette Stadium, the first time in the game’s 124-year history that it will be held in New England.

Sheridan chairs Governor Healey’s Advisory Commission on Travel & Tourism in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is co-chair of the Advisory Committee planning the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. She is past Chair of Destinations International, the world’s largest association of destination marketing professionals. In 2022, she received Destination International’s Destination Organization Leadership Award, which is among the association’s most prestigious honors for those who have made a significant impact on the industry and in their communities. In 2015, she was named one of the Top 25 Women in the Meetings Industry by Meetings and Conventions Magazine. In 2022 and in 2023, she was named one of The 100 Most Influential Bostonians by Boston Magazine as well as a Boston Business Journal Power 50 Movement Maker.

Prior to joining Meet Boston in 2019, Sheridan was President & CEO of the Providence/Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau (PWCVB), where she was instrumental in driving group and leisure business to the Ocean State, solidifying Providence as one of the premier destinations for conventions in the Northeast. A recipient of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association’s (RIHA) Mary Brennan Tourism Award for outstanding achievement in tourism promotion, Sheridan was also named RIHA’s Woman of the Year. She is the recipient of the MPINE President’s Award and the MPINE Supplier of the Year Award. In 2014, she was presented with Junior Achievement of Rhode Island’s highest honor, the Morris J. Gaebe Profile in Excellence Award.

Find out more at www.meetboston.com