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Memphis, San Fran: two hot convention cities
Two very different US cities anticipate record hospitality and meeting crowds this year: San Francisco and Memphis.
“The city is getting its biggest new hotel since 1989, its first new restaurant building in decades, its most lucrative tourism year since the dot-com boom, and its most lucrative convention season in five years,” said the San Francisco Business Times.
In Memphis, known for its barbeque and the home of Elvis Presley, the city booked more than 89,000 hotel room nights in 2007 but 2008 already has 87,000 room nights on the books.
And 2009 will be even better, said John Oros, executive vice president and COO of the CVB.
“2009 looks like it’ll be the best year we’ve ever had because we’re 40% ahead of where we were for 2007,” Mr Oros said.
In San Francisco, long a tourist favorite because of its uniqueness, tourism officials are predicting record-shattering numbers this year.
“They’re coming,” Jon Handlery, general manager of the Handlery Union Square Hotel said of the future boom in tourism. “Internationally, it’s happening. … It’s going to be good for a while.”
Continental Development and InterContinental Hotels and Resorts plan to open their $200 million, 550-room, 32-story hotel by the end of February next door to the western wing of the Moscone Convention Center.
The InterContinental will be the largest new hotel in the city since the 1,500-room downtown Marriott opened in 1989. It will have 43,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space.
Joe D’Alessandro, now in his second year as head of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, has launched a campaign to spruce up Moscone, and is expected to form a committee next year to study options. Some observers think the study will recommend an expansion or even relocation.
Some observers attribute much of Memphis’s success to the Cook Convention Center. Since its $92 million expansion opened in 2003, Memphis’ convention business has grown each year, Mr Oros said. The expansion included a 5,000-square-foot exhibit hall and a 28,000-square-foot ballroom.
Report by David Wilkening
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