To hear any industry pundit tell it, hotel
occupancy numbers have never looked so good at least not in this
century. This year’s Trends in the Hotel Industry report from San
Francisco-based PKF Consulting calculated a 67.5 percent national
occupancy average for 2004, with an expected hike to 69.4 by the
end of this year, a mere half percent beneath 2000’s
record-breaking peak.
Even amid the much-touted turnaround, however, some of
America’s strongest cities continue to await their big rebound.
Whether because of staggeringly large hotel portfolios, still
fledgling downtown revitalizations or myriad other reasons, these
10 destinations remain hungry for your business and have
infrastructure and character enough to prove worthy of it. Best of
all, the price is right.
Atlanta
Occupancy: 60.5%
Average Daily Rate: $75.76
Why the low occupancy: Although Atlanta has the
country’s fourth largest convention center, this city has not
recovered from its early 21st-century slump the way its competitors
have. According to Paul Breslin, managing director of the Sheraton
Atlanta, the chief culprit is the city’s plenitude of rooms
approximately 93,000 blowing other hotel-heavy cities out of the
water.
David McAuley, director of the Atlanta Convention &
Visitors Bureau’s Washington, D.C., office, notes a more nagging
problem. “Atlanta has all the infrastructure of a first-tier city,”
he says, “but people think it lacks the destination appeal of the
first tier. That’s about to change.” Indeed, occupancy rebounded
this year by five percentage points.
Why you should go: Atlanta’s downtown is
anchored by the Centennial Olympic Park, which is home to both the
revamped CNN World Center and the mammoth Georgia World Congress
Center. Just a stone’s throw away are 12,000 hotel rooms, including
a Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Omni and Westin with more than 1,000
guest rooms each.
Midtown just a quick MARTA train ride or a $7 cab ride north is
in full bloom, too. The shops, lounges and restaurants opening
along Peachtree Street are putting the buzz over the famously haute
Buckhead district to shame. Nonbelievers should check out
restaurants like the spicy, festive Mitra for proof.
What’s coming up: This November, the
much-anticipated Georgia Aquarium will touch down on Centennial
Olympic Park. With 110,000 fish and sea mammals in residence, the
facility promises to be the largest in the Western Hemisphere.
Butting up against the aquarium by 2007 will be the relocated and
revamped World of Coca-Cola museum.
In midtown, the 138-acre Atlantic Station, a “village” with
retail, entertainment, residential and professional components, is
expected to open phase one by October of this year.
Bonus points: For years, Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport has ranked as the world’s busiest. No
wonder, then, that airfare can be a steal. Once attendees have
landed, they can shuttle from the airport to their hotel rooms,
less than 12 miles away, for a mere $1.75. And with the generally
reasonable fees for attractions in this city, attendance at a
Braves game can cost as little as $15.
Cincinnati
Occupancy: 55.6%
Average Daily Rate: $72.27
Why the low occupancy: When Cincinnati police
fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in 2001, racial tensions
erupted here and spilled out across the United States. Local
activists initiated a boycott of the city, and groups across the
country held back, depriving the city of an estimated $86 million
in group business. In the wake of extensive attempts by both the
government and the populace to learn and heal from the 2001 riots,
however, Cincinnati has made real progress in restoring its image.
Minority groups and their sympathizers are beginning to return,
including the National Baptist Convention, which is bringing some
18,000 delegates to the Cinergy Center in 2008.
Why you should go: Cincinnati is brimming with
fresh energy and developments right now, including the National
Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a $110 million facility
devoted to the local and national history of American slavery. The
venue comes complete with ample space for special events.
Sports lovers will enjoy two new stadiums as well as the
Cincinnati Reds Baseball Hall of Fame, unveiled last fall.
On the hotel front, three out of the eight properties within
walking distance of the Cinergy Center are four-diamond rated, and
all are linked to the rain-impervious Skywalk system.
What’s coming up: Next July, the Cinergy Center
will unveil a $140 million expansion. Competitor-crunching square
footage (purportedly including the largest ballroom in the Midwest)
and $4.5 million in technological upgrades will join a chic, glassy
design.
Bonus points: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
International Airport is home to Delta Air Lines’ second largest
hub, which means both simplicity and Simplifares for planners on a
budget.
Dallas
Occupancy: 57%
Average Daily Rate: $75.16
Why the low occupancy: The economic slump of
2001 hit every U.S. city hard, but as a fast-growing business
destination, Dallas was particularly vulnerable. The Dallas
Convention Center had just undergone a major overhaul when 9/11
pummeled the meetings industry, leaving tech-heavy Dallas all
dressed up with no one to host.
Why you should go: Aside from 65,000 hotel
rooms citywide, Dallas offers nine entertainment districts within a
three-mile radius of its convention center. Among the arts
district’s array of premier museums and galleries is the Nasher
Sculpture Center, which opened to high praise and healthy crowds
less than two years ago.
The Uptown district, a short (and free) M-Line Trolley ride
away, overflows with the sort of high-end boutiques and
chicer-than-thou properties one would expect in more famously tony
environs. The latest piece of evidence: The lavish Hotel at
Crescent Court, a Rosewood Hotel, just opened a new outpost of
David Rockwell-designed Nobu, possibly America’s swankiest sushi
restaurant.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport’s new people-mover
system shuttles passengers from one end of the facility to the
other in nine minutes, and the new 28-gate Terminal D houses an
equally new Grand Hyatt DFW.
What’s coming up: A sprawling array of
development projects are expected to reach completion over the next
eight years, with new additions emerging regularly along the way.
As Tom Noonan, senior vice president of sales and convention
services for the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, puts it, “I
wouldn’t want to compete with us in 2011.”
Among the highlights: the long-term Trinity River Project with
two man-made lakes, three Santiago Calatrava-designed bridges and
an 8,000-acre park; a parade of high-end hotels, including a W and
a Kimpton’s Palomar Hotel by next year; a new Ritz-Carlton and a
Joule Urban Resort by 2007; and, pending final negotiations, a
headquarters hotel, most likely a Marriott, as well as a skywalk
that will connect the convention center with both the new property
and the existing Hyatt Regency by 2008. Also look for a seamless
light-rail ride from the convention center and downtown hotels to
both the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field
Airport.
Bonus points: One recent CVB offer involved a
$5 rebate per room night, and the bureau is especially flexible
with planners who bring in repeat business. This past June, the CVB
launched a new website (www.dallasmeetings.com/pharmaceuticalmeetings)
targeted at pharmaceutical planners but accessible to all, listing
hot dates for those booking on short notice.
Detroit
Occupancy: 56.6%
Average Daily Rate: $78.47
Why the low occupancy: In its heyday, Detroit
was the industrial capital of America. However, with the declining
supremacy of General Motors, Motown Records and other local brands,
Motor City lost its star position and then some. “We fell off the
radar screen for a while,” admits Carla Conner-Penzabene, director
of convention sales for the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors
Bureau, “but now people are blown away by the changes.”
Why you should go: The General Motors
Renaissance Center has undergone a $500 million overhaul, including
a newly landscaped Detroit riverfront laced with three miles of
leafy parks, a five-story glass atrium and a thoroughly made-over
1,298-room Marriott on site. In addition, the new 1.6-acre Campus
Martius Park, Compuware’s latest headquarters, brims with gardens,
dining areas and an ice-skating rink.
The renovated COBO Conference/Exhibition Center is abloom with
riverfront spirit, too, adding a dock and a 2,000-passenger cruise
ship of its own.
Hotel inventory is on the rise as well, with the Hilton Garden
Inn Detroit Downtown and the Westin Detroit Metropolitan
Airport.
A positive note to the wary: A study this year from Wayne State
University found that Detroit’s downtown area to have a crime rate
26 percent below the national average for major city centers.
What’s coming up: The city’s three downtown
gaming facilities Greektown Casino, MGM Grand Detroit Casino and
MotorCity Casino have announced plans to offer new totals of
100,000 square feet of gaming space each by next year. In addition,
each will sprout a new 400-room hotel.
Bonus points: With newly relaxed union labor
rules at the convention center, exhibitors can set up a
300-square-foot booth at a trade show themselves.
On the transportation front, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County
Airport has Northwest Airlines’ largest hub, receiving 700 direct
flights a day; Spirit also has a hub here, and Southwest flies in
often. The public transit system, which stops at every point of
downtown interest, costs 50 cents a ride or $1 for an all-day
pass.
Hartford, Conn.
Occupancy: 63.7%
Average Daily Rate: $84.07
Why the low occupancy: Until recently, this
city was as low on space as it was on cachet. Thanks to the new
Connecticut Convention Center in downtown and a citywide overhaul,
occupancy already has shot up 7.1 percent over last year, but this
burgeoning destination still is working to fill its meetings
calendar.
Why you should go: Location is a strong suit for
Hartford, whose hotel rates, averaging 8 to 22 percent lower than
neighboring cities such as Boston and Providence, R.I., afford many
planners a chance to book big in New England.
And thanks to the ongoing Riverfront Recapture project, a once
largely inaccessible Connecticut River sports an array of parks and
jogging trails, enough to inspire a glut of new dining and
entertainment options downtown.
What’s coming up: The long-awaited and boldly
designed Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration will break
ground next to the convention center later this year and should
open by 2008.
Across the street, plans for major retail complex Front Street
opening in summer 2006 still are being hashed out, but an ESPN Zone
is almost certain.
Bonus points: The convention center’s primary
markets, educational and medical associations, find a stunning
supply of nearby universities and medical facilities (more than 30
each), which can mean invaluable support when it comes time to find
sponsors for events.
Nashville
Occupancy: 61.4%
Average Daily Rate: $75.64
Why the low occupancy: Since the Opryland theme
park closed in 1997, the city especially the area around the
Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center has been looking to
fill hotel rooms.
Why you should go: Nashville’s reputation as a
mecca of American music is well known. From the legendary Ryman
Auditorium to the humble Bluebird Cafe, where songwriters gather to
share their dearest work, there’s no shortage of venues for private
functions or just some great listening. Nonmusical assets include
the Athens-inspired Nashville Parthenon, acclaimed art museums and
the rolling lawns and well-burnished balustrades of the city’s
plantation homes.
The city’s greatest advantage, however, according to Butch
Spyridon, president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors
Bureau, is its authenticity, perhaps best summed up in the
prevalence of real-life honky tonks on downtown streets or the high
probability of finding a local songwriter willing to pen a tune
expressly for your convention group and for a song, at that.
What’s coming up: Next fall brings the
unveiling of an eagerly awaited $140 million symphony hall in
downtown. A commuter rail that rings the city perimeter should be
up and running by winter 2006. And now that feasibility studies are
completed, bureau representatives say it’s only a matter of time
before Nashville replaces its current downtown convention center
with a newer, shinier one.
Bonus points: Southwest Airlines services the
city, and flexible labor laws reign at the convention center.
Portland, Ore.
Occupancy: 59.6%
Average Daily Rate: $75.72
Why the low occupancy: “I always say the
challenge is getting people out here,” says Portland Oregon
Visitors Association’s vice president of sales, Michael Smith, who
adds that once they do arrive, they fall in love.
Why you should go: This famously clean, friendly
and walkable city literally is a breath of fresh air. From the
environmentally advanced Oregon Convention Center to the hushed,
speedy light- rail system, green comfort is on display everywhere.
Plus, the restaurant scene here has garnered a full mantle of James
Beard trophies.
In arts-heavy Old Town, the first Thursday of every month
becomes an aesthete’s mardi gras, with gallery doors swung open
until late. And the nearby Pearl District has been transformed from
a row of forbiddingly dingy warehouses into a thriving chic-fest in
only the past five years.
What’s coming up: Only a few years after a $45
million overhaul, the Portland Art Museum is just finishing up a
$34 million expansion. By the end of this year, visitors can expect
27,000 additional square feet of gallery space, a 30-foot glass
overlook and three historically restored ballrooms, all available
for meetings.
Bonus points: The light-rail, woven across the
entirety of Portland’s downtown and most of its relevant outskirts,
is free of charge. The train system does, however, charge a
painless $1.65 for a lift to the Portland International
Airport.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Occupancy: 67.6%
Average Daily Rate: $75.45
Why the low occupancy: In 1997, once the 2002
Olympic Winter Games were awarded to Salt Lake City, “it was as if
every hotel developer in the country started looking at us,”
recalls Mark White, vice president of sales and marketing for the
Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. By 2002, the city’s
hotel inventory had increased by 64 percent, and occupancy rates,
inevitably, took a dive.
Why you should go: Amid the breathtaking
mountainscapes and mild weather of Salt Lake is a rich but compact
downtown. Two pioneer museums, the world’s largest genealogical
library, an IMAX theater and a grand opera house not to mention a
new library, a planetarium and an aquarium are all within walking
distance of the Salt Palace Convention Center and its 7,000 nearby
hotel rooms, ranging in elegance from the Best Western Hotel Suites
to the luxurious Grand America Hotel.
Along with free rehearsal performances by the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir at downtown’s Latter Day Saints church headquarters, jazz
festivals and brewery competitions are de rigueur in this eclectic,
invigorating city. For those looking to venture farther out, seven
of the country’s top ski and summer resorts are within a 45-minute
drive.
What’s coming up: The Salt Palace, only seven
miles from Salt Lake City International Airport, will lift the
curtain on $52 million worth of expansions in August 2006, leaving
the center 40 percent larger with 515,000 square feet of contiguous
trade show floor and 125,000 square feet of meeting space.
Bonus points: Salt Lake’s airport is home to
Delta’s Western hub and hosts old-guard airlines alongside carriers
like JetBlue and Southwest. Plus, for planners who fear
astronomical convention center labor wages, this Palace is
union-free.
San Jose, Calif.
Occupancy: 56.9%
Average Daily Rate: $97.66
Why the low occupancy: The dot-com implosion is
a major part of any U.S. city’s story, but in Silicon Valley the
bust was devastating, particularly to the meetings market.
According to Daniel Fenton, president and CEO of the San Jose
Convention & Visitors Bureau, while the San Jose McEnery
Convention Center was reveling in high-end tech business, the city
made less and less time for other markets. When its prime target
all but vanished at the turn of this century, the city’s convention
market was left with lots of hotel rooms and few friends.
Under the watch of Fenton, however, who became president and
CEO in 2000, San Jose has aimed much of its outreach at previously
neglected markets. “We’re a case study for the need of long-term
diversification,” Fenton says. “We’ve learned that putting all your
eggs in one basket doesn’t work.”
Associations and religious groups have been biting the bait,
and occupancy has risen by 8 percent in the past year. This city is
still fighting its way out of the woods, however, and hotel rates
while somewhat more expensive than other destinations on this list
remain relatively lenient.
Why you should go: Aside from 8,000 rooms
within a three mile radius and 3,000 full-service rooms within easy
walking distance, San Jose provides a meetings infrastructure
befitting America’s 10th largest city. The McEnery Convention
Center just took the wraps off an 80,000-square-foot addition,
along with a renovation of its ballroom and all meeting rooms.
Sunny downtown swirls with restaurants, outdoor performances,
nightlife and museums. The SoFA arts and entertainment district
beckons across the street from the convention center; other
neighborhoods to pencil in for attendees’ free time include
revitalized San Pedro Square, historic Willow Glen and serene
Japantown.
What’s coming up: At press time, plans for a
$110 million, 21-story condo in the SoFA district were made
official. And with 10 other similar downtown projects pending, the
San Jose nightlife scene can only turn rosier. Also coming soon: an
overhaul of the Sainte Claire, a Larkspur Hotel (formerly the Hyatt
Sainte Claire).
Bonus points: Since Team San Jose, spun off
from San Jose’s CVB, took over management of the convention center
last year, planners can both open discussions and close the deal
with one rep for every aspect of their meeting, from start to
finish. This can mean significantly more leeway during
negotiations.
St. Louis
Occupancy: 60.2%
Average Daily Rate: $77.10
Why the low occupancy: When the Renaissance
Grand and its sister Renaissance Suites rose up as new headquarters
hotels for America’s Center in 2003, the combined 1,083-room duo
ushered in a wave of new hotel product, including a Hampton Inn, a
Sheraton and a Westin. Each of the 7,600 guest rooms downtown, in
fact, has been newly built or overhauled since 2002. With so many
riches, says Steve Stickford, senior vice president of sales and
services for the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission,
“it can get hard to keep your occupancy levels at their
highest.”
Why you should go: The Gateway Arch stands
beside less heralded assets such as the International Bowling
Museum and Hall of Fame. Of the city’s more than 1,000 restaurants,
seven opened conveniently near the America’s Center this year.
Finally, St. Louis’ place on the U.S. map leaves it within a
three-and-a-half-hour flight from any point in the country.
What’s coming up: Downtown, the new $345
million Busch Stadium will open in August 2006 amid a new
five-block retail-restaurant-residential complex called Baseball
Village. Pinnacle Entertainment will open a sprawling new gaming
facility and hotel in Laclede’s Landing by 2007. A project called
the Bottle District, breaking ground in December, will install a
slew of restaurants and an indoor race track in the city
center.
Bonus points: The city has more than 60 free
attractions, including the St. Louis Zoo and numerous museums. In
addition, American and Southwest Airlines both have hubs at
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, and planners who block an
800-room peak night less than six months out will be given 100,000
square feet of exhibit space and a third of the 84 meeting rooms at
America’s Center free of charge.
Occupancy and average daily rates courtesy of Smith Travel
Research, based on a 12-month period ending April 2005.