Bob Jameson, who has led Visit Fort Worth for 13 years as president and CEO, announced Tuesday he will retire at the end of April.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been the joy of my life,\u201d Jameson said in a news release. \u201cTourism is important for our economy and our national visibility and must be grounded in our community for the benefit of our residents.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A national search will begin to find Jameson\u2019s replacement, Visit Fort Worth officials said in the release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During Jameson\u2019s tenure, the city\u2019s visitor economy doubled and Fort Worth became one of the fastest-growing tourism destinations in the country.<\/p>\n
Jameson joined the group in January 2013, replacing David DuBois, who had led the Fort Worth and Convention &and Visitors Bureau for seven years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City leaders credited Jameson for increasing the public profile of the nonprofit organization, which is funded primarily by the city\u2019s hotel occupancy tax. Visit Fort Worth\u2019s annual meeting, usually held in February, has become a top citywide event, regularly drawing about 1,000.<\/p>\n
Jameson\u2019s involvement in local tourism extends beyond his time as head of Visit Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prior to joining the tourism organization, then known as the Fort Worth Convention & Visitor\u2019s Bureau, he led the Marriott Worthington Renaissance hotel in downtown Fort Worth for nearly three decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBob Jameson has had immeasurable impact on Fort Worth\u2019s visitor tourism success over the past 13 years,\u201d Mayor Mattie Parker said in a statement. \u201cHe is truly one of Fort Worth\u2019s best ambassadors, and I\u2019m thrilled for him in his next chapter of retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Jameson\u2019s leadership, Visit Fort Worth developed the Fort Worth Sports Commission, Hear Fort Worth music office, the Fort Worth Film Commission and the Fort Worth Tourism Public Improvement District to attract and support long-term growth of key industries throughout the city. He also expanded support for convention sales and services as well as for the Fort Worth Herd.<\/p>\n
In the past decade, Visit Fort Worth officials said the city saw:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 The economic impact of tourism doubled to $3.6 billion.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The number of visitors doubled to more than 11.7 million.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Hospitality jobs doubled to 30,000.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Direct visitor spending hit a record $3 billion.<\/p>\n
\u2022 $287 million state and local taxes generated by visitor spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jameson currently serves on the boards of Arts Fort Worth, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Near Southside, Fort Worth Opera, the Cliburn, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Sister Cities International, and Downtown Fort Worth Inc.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also serves on the boards of the Texas Travel Alliance and the U.S. Travel Association.<\/p>\n
Steve Montgomery, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber, said the announcement carried an impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of those moments that you know is coming someday, yet when it finally arrives, it hits you hard,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Montgomery said the next leader needs to be someone who is \u201cpassionate about the success of the organization, its mission and, above all, Fort Worth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Fernado Costa, former assistant city manager for the city, Jameson left a roadmap for the next leader of Visit Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis successor, and others who aspire to sustain Fort Worth\u2019s economic and cultural momentum, can draw valuable lessons from Bob\u2019s leadership,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jameson, who was born in Long Beach and raised in Garden Grove, California, began his career in hospitality with Marriott International in the Golden State in 1977.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He graduated from the University of San Francisco in 1976 with a bachelor of arts in history.<\/p>\n
Jameson and his wife, Anne Milder Jameson, are the parents of four children: Bradley, Simone, Mack and Andi.<\/p>\n
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.\u00a0Disclosure: Mitch Whitten of Visit Fort Worth is on the Fort Worth Report\u2019s board of directors. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/01\/20\/longtime-visit-fort-worth-leader-retiring\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=376170&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/01\/20\/longtime-visit-fort-worth-leader-retiring\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Bob Francis, Fort Worth Report January 20, 2026 Bob Jameson, who has led Visit Fort Worth for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8691,116,118,117,3512,39691],"class_list":["post-131111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-downtown-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-hotels","tag-visit-fort-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}