巴尔的摩以BTS演唱会为例，用DDM模型衡量活动超越 attendance 的多维影响

In today’s evolving event landscape, determining outcomes involves far more than traditional activity metrics. Moving beyond attendance and revenue numbers, Destination Development Model (DDM) is a compelling new measurement approach from jwc, a leading global meetings and exhibitions industry consultancy based in Germany.

DDM considers four strategic impact clusters: people and community; skills and knowledge; economic impact; and reputation and legacy.

Baltimore and Ocean City, Maryland, offer case-study examples of this wider-picture view in action. Here is the inside perspective on optimizing and leveraging event impact in two of Maryland’s premier group destinations.

Baltimore Turns on the Citywide Charm

When graduating from high school in 2020, Baltimore County-born Deja McLean gifted herself tickets to see global “K-Pop” sensation BTS in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic nullified the tour. 

This January, her disappointment reverted to joy when the South Korean boy band announced they were playing Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium on their 2026-2027 Arirang World Tour. A devoted ARMY (BTS’ global fan base) member and moderator of Baltimore’s BTS Discord board, McLean and a fellow fan embarked on an ambitious fan-centric project.

“Originally, we wanted to create the traditional BTS welcome setup at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport for arriving fans,” shared McLean, now an IT specialist for the City of Baltimore. “Then another fan said we had to prepare the whole city for the scale of what was coming.”

That impetus led McLean and friends, in an all-volunteer effort, to enlist the support of key agencies including the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Culture and Entertainment, the Mayor’s Office of Small and Minority Business Advocacy & Development, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore and Visit Baltimore.

“My motivation went beyond fandom,” McLean said. “I wanted to give back to Baltimore while addressing persistent fearmongering about the destination. Baltimore today is not the version depicted on TV or in the news. Our goal was to introduce visitors to the people, venues and experiences that define ‘Charm City’ as a safe, all-welcoming place.”

[Related: Maryland’s Major Meetings Destinations Are Set for Success]

‘Welcome to Boramore’

McLean and her fellow fans organized citywide fan-led activities centered around the two BTS concerts on consecutive nights last August at M&T Bank Stadium. These included fan meet-ups, community experiences, fundraising events, karaoke nights, pre-concert happy hours and afterparties.  

“To immerse people in Baltimore, we created the Purple Charm Trail, a stamp-driven passport guide to local businesses, restaurants, museums and other sites,” McLean said. “Purple symbolizes the loving, trusting bond between BTS and their fans. Purple is ‘bora’ in Korean, which we combined with Baltimore to make ‘Boramore,’ and the color of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, named after the poem by legendary resident Edgar Allan Poe.”

I experienced all of this on an engaging, exciting and eye-opening fam hosted by Visit Baltimore. 

The BTS fandom is comparable to the Beatles, uniting hearts and minds around the world. Costumed fans of all ages and many nationalities took over Baltimore, filling restaurants and shops, exchanging “freebies” and speaking the universal language of love and peace. 

From meeting fans at my hotel, the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor, and at a pre-concert party at Checkerspot Brewing Company, to joining 70,000-plus other fans at the first concert—the stadium set a two-day attendance record of 140,000-plus people—it was a citywide experience for the ages. 

Other participating venues included Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor, which hosted a client reception in a premier panoramic event space. The Baltimore Convention Center served as a BTS merchandise headquarters. 

BTS stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore and gave shoutouts to the culinary scene during the concerts. Restaurants and bars offered BTS-themed specials. Local businesses such as Pandora’s Box Boutique in Federal Hill, whose owner, Monesha Phillips, vitally supported the Purple Charm Trail initiative, flourished. 

From people and community through reputation and legacy, Baltimore hit DDM’s measurements across the board.

The Place to Be

Visit Baltimore’s welcoming leadership team shared key takeaways and lessons from the BTS experience, plus how the event’s impact sets the stage for long-term growth.

“Knowing that BTS’ incredibly engaged ARMY fanbase would create opportunities to showcase Baltimore beyond the concert itself, we focused on how we could help, as a promotional partner, to turn one major event into a citywide experience,” said Visit Baltimore President and CEO Kireem Swinton. “Wanting fans to experience our attractions, restaurants, small businesses and, most importantly, our welcoming community, we worked with local partners to amplify happenings across Baltimore and give visitors more reasons to explore.”

He emphasized that the “real credit” goes to the organizers of Boramore and local businesses, citing how the Purple Charm Trail “encouraged fans to experience Baltimore in tangible, fun, authentic and community-driven ways.”

Swinton is bullish on BTS as a model for the future.

“Major events are an opportunity to introduce people to a destination and give them a reason to come back,” he continued. “We saw major engagement with our content, heard positive feedback from visitors and, most importantly, ARMY members spent their time and money intentionally in our neighborhoods. To me, that is the measure of success: visitors, many of them international, came for BTS but had an opportunity to discover, enjoy and return home as ambassadors for Baltimore.”

Baltimore is well practiced at activating passionate audiences around major events.

“We built BTS on existing strengths,” Swinton said. “The biggest takeaway is to continue leaning into our local business community and creating opportunities that encourage visitors to explore our neighborhoods. The lesson for us is simple: When uniting our community for events, the experience can become bigger than the event itself. That is destination storytelling we want to continue building.”

Invited meeting planners also caught positive vibes.

“We took this unique opportunity to showcase Baltimore to some of our top clients,” said Brian Chung, director of Mid-Atlantic sales, Visit Baltimore. “Impressed by our activations, from widespread fan events to the hotel package and the concert venue, they got a great firsthand look at Baltimore’s ability to host a large-scale event, and local experiences that make the destination special.”

Hosting BTS represented “an incredible opportunity to showcase our city as a welcoming, inclusive and authentic convention destination, while seamlessly welcoming well over 70,000 people over two days was a strong testament to how we expertly host large city-wide conventions,” said Laurie Nelson-Choice, director of diversity and national sales, Visit Baltimore. “People want to visit destinations that make them feel comfortable and welcome. That is Baltimore’s strength. Our award-winning Warm Welcome Program trains teams at our hotels, restaurants and attractions on making visitors feel at home here. Baltimore is a vibe—it’s where you want to be!”

That is certainly true of the future. There’s still work to do, but this is not the scruffy Baltimore I first encountered in the 1990s. The weave of history, attractions and neighborhoods in and around the Inner Harbor and convention and hospitality core are, to Swinton’s point, reasons to visit and come back.

After years of neglect and disinvestment, city and state government-backed generational transformations that included the $7 billion reinvention of downtown into a walkable, green, transit-oriented destination; Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank’s massive Baltimore Peninsula waterfront development; and plans for a unified sports and entertainment district that will reposition Baltimore as the place to be.

[Related: Visit Baltimore Names Kireem Swinton as President and CEO]

Ocean City Makes Waves

Home of the Roland E. Powell Convention Center, offering 200,000-plus square feet of flexible space, along with a host of full-service, meetings-focused hotels and fetching waterfront and other offsite venues, coastal Ocean City, Maryland, has also mastered extending events destination-wide.

“While our scale may differ from Baltimore, many of the same principles apply: Listen to what a planner wants to accomplish, bring the right partners together and look beyond the meeting space to create memorable experiences that bring attendees back,” said Kim Mueller, director of sales for Discover Ocean City. “Powerful examples include the annual Oceans Calling Music Festival. Incorporating the beach, boardwalk, restaurants and attractions into a seamless event footprint for 55,000 attendees, the festival dramatically signifies Ocean City’s ability to manage large-scale event logistics while creating truly unique group experiences.”

In this Q&A with Senior Contributor Jeff Heilman, Mueller breaks down Discover Ocean City’s well-developed playbook for maximizing event reach and impact.

Jeff Heilman: How does the conversation begin?

Kim Mueller: True destination partnership starts with listening. Before discussing meeting space, hotels or activities, we want to understand the organization, its attendees, the planner’s goals and objectives, how they measure success and what they want attendees talking about post-event.

From the initial RFP and site visit through contracting and execution, we use that understanding to bring the right partners together. More than simply helping planners find the pieces they need, we know how to connect those pieces in a way that elevates the experience.

That may mean bringing together the convention center, hotels, restaurants, attractions, transportation providers, municipal departments or community partners. Sometimes the best ideas begin with a planner telling us, “We’d love to do this,” and our team knowing who to call to help make it happen.

Talk about your destination-wide approach to meetings and events.

Ocean City combines the Roland E. Powell Convention Center with approximately 11,000 hotel rooms, 200-plus restaurants, entertainment, the boardwalk, beach and bay. The real opportunity is making those assets part of the program. A waterfront reception, beach teambuilding experience, sunset gathering, local dining experience or activity on the bay can turn time outside the meeting room into the event’s most memorable moments. We want attendees to experience Ocean City, not simply attend a conference here.

How does that fit into Ocean City’s overall value proposition?

Beyond room rate, Ocean City offers a combination of capacity, accessibility, flexibility and value. Planners can stretch their budgets with competitive hotel rates and meeting space savings, particularly outside of our peak summer season.

For us, value is not only about spending less, but how savings allow planners to invest more in programming, culinary, offsites and other touchpoints that elevate the entire event. This is of increasing importance today for planners who are being asked to do more with their budgets while attendees expect more from the experience.

With partnerships and collaboration as a key competitive advantage?

Absolutely. As both a municipality and a destination organization, we can bring tourism, convention center, municipal and community partners together when an event requires a broader destination effort.

Major conventions, meetings, sporting events, festivals and destination-wide gatherings utilizing multiple hotels, venues and public spaces are integral to Ocean City’s year-round strategy, particularly outside the traditional summer season. That creates tremendous support for groups from our hotels, restaurants and local businesses. 

When everyone works together, the planner does not see a collection of individual businesses and organizations, but one destination team invested in their success, which is ultimately what we want our clients to feel when they bring an event to Ocean City.

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