With visitor traffic down in just about every major metropolis, it's no
wonder city and municipal governments are looking for reasons behind it.
Boston's Mayor Tom Menino reviewed a report the Boston Convention & Visitors
Bureau commissioned from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which studied future
bookings for the city's new $800 million convention center (scheduled to
open in 2004), and found the forecasts fell short. He asked the the Mass.
Convention Center Authority, which shares convention sales responsibility
with the convention bureau, to review the bureau's marketing efforts and put
them out to bid. The new center is under construction in South Boston,
several miles away from the city’s current conference hub, Hynes Convention
Center, in downtown Boston. An adjacent 1,200-room Starwood hotel, is
delayed because of financial difficulties, so the center will be open for at
least a year with no headquarters hotel.
A similar situation exists in Los Angeles. With only six conventions booked
at the Los Angeles Convention Center this fiscal year, the city is
evaluating whether it should renew its contract with the Los Angeles
Convention & Visitors Bureau to promote the city-owned center. George
Kirkland, president of the LACVB, wrote in a letter to the editor of the
LA Times: "Convention center bookings have fallen in the past 18
months for a number of reasons. Correctly, you pointed out the No. 1
reasons: a dearth of hotel rooms within walking distance of the Los Angeles
Convention Center. We enjoyed success in recent years while two of our
competitors—San Diego and Anaheim—were recasting the hotel and visitor
infrastructure that now supports their centers. We must do the same."
Down in Miami Beach, Mayor David Dermer is opposed to renewing the Greater
Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau's contract when it expires in September.
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