Jorge Franz

Jorge Franz is the Vice President of Tourism and International Group Sales for the Greater Houston and Convention and Visitors Bureau. He has been working for the Houston office for more than eight years and in this capacity, oversees the international promotion of the City of Houston through Sales, Marketing and Public Relations efforts. This includes directing a staff of seven individuals along with five representation offices in Mexico, Venezuela, Germany, Japan and Taiwan that together, make up the face of Houston as a leisure, convention and business destination to travelers from around the world.

Mr. Franz is very active in the Tourism community and was most recently Chair of the Governor of Texas’ Tourism Advisory Committee.

He also sits on the boards and in various committees dedicated to increasing the number of tourists that visit the City of Houston. These include the board of the Houston Greeters, the Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Board, the Founder’s board of the Buffalo Soldiers Museum in Houston, the Texas Medical Center’s International Affairs Advisory Council, The Texas Travel Industry Association’s membership committee and the Cultural Tourism Collaborative which is focused on tourism infrastructure development for the Greater Houston area.

He recently co-chaired the Mayor of Houston’s “China Tourism Task Force” where he worked with various Houston organizations on issues pertaining to Chinese travelers to Houston and was very involved in the Mayor’s “International Traveler Task Force.”

Before his time with the bureau, Mr. Franz worked for six years at Time Warner Communications - Houston and spearheaded their education, internal relations and Hispanic public relations initiatives. He won many industry awards including the Texas Cable Association's "Judge's award" for his efforts. He was also very active with Houston's community during this time, volunteering his time to a number of organizations and schools in the Houston area.

Mr. Franz was born in Santiago, Chile and has lived in Chile, Venezuela, Spain and the United States. He has also represented Houston personally in more than 22 countries around the world. He enjoys traveling immensely and thinks he has one of the best jobs in the world. He has a Bachelors degree in Mass Communications from the University of Houston and has been a proud Houstonian and Texan for more than 25 years.