With more than 35 hotels to choose from, the BWI/Arundel Mills region of Anne Arundel County is a popular destination for business travelers and sporting events promoters who want quick access to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport — as well as with cost-conscious Baltimore-bound vacationers.

Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County (VAAAC) President and CEO Connie Del Signore said increasing numbers of individuals are considering the BWI/Arundel Mills region a destination in itself. “Feedback from meeting planners has been extremely positive. They like having the option of presenting two destinations to their clients: Historic Annapolis and the BWI/Arundel Mills region.”

Visit Annapolis kept the growing appeal of the BWI/Arundel Mills region in mind when it redesigned its 2013 Visit

Annapolis.org website. According to Del Signore, “We gave the region its own independent website, TheHotelsAtBWI.com, when we launched Visit Annapolis’s mobile device-friendly websites last month. The stand-alone site gives interested individuals immediate access to all things BWI and Arundel Mills everywhere mobile service is available.”

Del Signore said sporting events promoters like the ease with which they can access hotel inventory at a glance on the TheHotelsAtBWI.com website. In February, UMBC selected VAAAC as the Official Visitors Bureau for Retriever Athletics through 2016. Under the partnership, TheHotelsAtBWI.com includes a UMBCHotels.com landing page that lists preferred hotel partners for the university’s 19 varsity teams and other visitors to UMBC’s Catonsville campus.

The hotel inventory at BWI/Arundel Mills continues to grow. A Home2 Suites by Hilton Arundel Mills/BWI opened in May, and several properties recently completed major renovations, including the Hilton Garden Inn BWI, SpringHill Suites BWI Airport, Homewood Suites by Hilton BWI, Staybridge Suites BWI, Hyatt Place Baltimore/BWI and Aloft & Element Hotels Arundel Mills. In addition, last year, the Anne Arundel County Council approved a $150 million expansion of Maryland Live! Casino to include an upscale 300-suite hotel and conference center.

As the number of hotel rooms has increased, so too has the inventory of shopping, dining and entertainment options.

While Maryland Live! and Arundel Mills continue to serve as major regional anchors, one-of-a-kind attractions, including the National Electronics Museum, the National Security Agency’s National Cryptologic Museum at Fort Meade and the Benson-Hammond House, continue to attract a faithful following — all just minutes from Baltimore and Historic Annapolis.