Meadowlands Chamber CVB CEO Jim Kirkos Awarded New Jersey’s Top Tourism Award

Jim Kirkos, the president and chief executive officer for the Meadowlands Chamber and Meadowlands Live Convention Visitors Bureau, has been honored with the Jim Whelan Memorial Tourism Award for his contributions over the past two decades to the region.

Kirkos was recognized recently by the New Jersey Tourism Industry Association. Among the events the Meadowlands has hosted includes the Wrestlemania 29 in 2013 and Wrestlemania 35 in 2019; the 2014 Super Bowl; eight matches, including the semifinals and final, for the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup and eight matches, including the final, for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The Meadowlands CVB was first imagined in early 2004 as part of the region’s interest in landing a Super Bowl. In August 2005, the NJ Meadowlands Commission approved a $25,000 grant to expand the CVB’s existing tourism kiosk program on the Hudson County Waterfront and the CVB held its inaugural Mdest Trade Show at the Meadowlands Expo Center featuring 50 exhibitors and seven sponsors.

The organization was awarded its first State Tourism DMO Grant in 2008 of $350,000 in two installments over two years and it still remains in the top five recipients of State Tourism grant funding. The CVB became the second DMO in New Jersey besides Atlantic City to be accredited by Destination Marketing Association International. In 2009, Kirkos was one of the founders of the consortium of New Jersey DMOs and joined the Board of Directors for NJ Tourism Industry Association.

Kirkos continues to advocate for the creation of a long-awaited Convention Center at the Meadowlands Sports Complex on the site of the former arena where the NBA’s Nets used to play.