April 2005
Meeting attendance goals in the Southeast

Capitalizing on travel trends to increase attendance

By Patricia D. Sherman


Business travelers are looking more and more like leisure travelers. In fact, they’re very often the same. Almost two-thirds of business travelers add a leisure component to at least one business trip a year, according to “The 2004 Business and Convention Travelers Report,” released in February by the Travel Institute of America (TIA). Together with EXPO’s Site Selection Survey published in November/December 2004 showing that attendance is the primary reason meetings do not return to a city, these findings reinforce the importance of destination value in building attendance at shows and meetings.

No other region of the country has more destinations that combine high leisure and business travel values than the Southeast. The challenge for show organizers is to match the destination with the trends that will most strongly influence their attendees. Unlike the Midwest, where organizers can choose from plenty of excellent facilities but destination marketing is a challenge, (“Meeting attendance goals in the Midwest,” EXPO, February 2005), perception is not a problem in the Southeast.

The region is in a perfect position to capitalize on three of the strongest trends in business travel that have emerged since 2001, says Bill Hardman, Chief Executive Officer of Southeast Tourism Society (www.southeasttourism.org), headquartered in Atlanta. He identifies these trends as increased interest in:
• Safety and security and an associated preference for driving. 
• Entertainment and recreation that appeals to adults as well as families.
• Culture and heritage.

Got a niche
Three of the nation’s top meeting destinations — Atlanta, Orlando, FL, and New Orleans — are in the Southeastern states of Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. They’ve had huge meeting and exhibition infrastructures in place for decades. Even so, all three are investing billions to broaden their product appeal across travel trends. 

Second- and third-tier cities in the region are just as driven by the trends. But instead of trying to be all things to all groups, says Hardman, many are capitalizing on their locations and their cultural, historical and recreational assets to appeal to niche markets. Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA, come to mind immediately as matches for attendees interested in cultural and historical context. Charlotte, NC, and Knoxville, TN, have been particularly successful drawing sports-related meetings and shows, Hardman says.

Nashville incorporates readily available music and celebrity power into meeting themes. Meetings in Raleigh, NC, though, are more likely to feature Ph.D.s than country crooners. “With seven institutions of higher learning and Research Triangle, education is our big draw. We have more Ph.D.s per capita than anywhere else in the country,” says Martin Armes, Director of Communications and Marketing, Raleigh CVB (www.visitraleigh.com), “and they’re a great resource for speakers.” 

Big Three invest billions in destination appeal
Atlanta and Orlando have vast, ever-changing, family-friendly entertainment attractions. New Orleans, which has plenty of entertainment, too, is rich in history and culture.

Atlanta is investing $12 billion in new construction to increase its destination appeal to families accompanying business travelers and to those who want a cultural component to their visit, says Spurgeon Richardson, CEO, Atlanta CVB (www.atlanta.net). “We’re reinventing ourselves. A decade after the Olympics, there are all new reasons to stay an extra day and to bring the family. We offer a completely new product in terms of culture, sports, restaurants, retail, entertainment and transportation,” he says. Two new entertainment attractions are located near the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC). The $200-million Georgia Aquarium will open in the fourth quarter. Next year, the new World of Coca Cola attraction will open next to the aquarium.” 

Other mixed-use developments close to the GWCC and downtown will add restaurants and retail. New restaurants and clubs are also appearing at Underground Atlanta, Richardson says. “It will be family by day and adults by night.”

Orlando, on the other hand, with its gargantuan theme attractions, is already established as the premier bring-the-family destination in the country, if not the world. However, a survey conducted by the CVB two years ago indicated that show organizers wanted a more “grown up” destination.

“Orlando is identified with Disneyworld in many people’s minds. For some groups, that’s a problem,” says Susan Bracken, President of J. Spargo and Associates (www.jspargo.com), a conference and trade show management company based in Fairfax, VA. She regularly takes meetings and shows to Orlando, Atlanta and New Orleans.

While not going so far as to re-invent itself, the city has greatly expanded amenities to appeal to adult tastes, says Mark Nelson, Vice President of Convention Sales, Orlando CVB (www.orlandoinfo.com). Show attendees and exhibitors will find dozens of new fine dining options and a million feet of upscale shopping near the convention center, as well as high-end resorts, nine spas and six professional golf academies in the area.

“They’re going in the right direction with more fine dining and quality hotel rooms near the convention center,” says Bracken.

Orlando is also mindful of the trend for cultural travel, says Nelson. “When people travel now, they want a personal learning component in their destination experience.” He cites the city’s opera, museums and science center. A $130-million expansion will more than double the size of the High Museum of Art when it opens in November. “People don’t think about culture when they think of Orlando and they’re surprised at the quality,” Nelson says.   

Figures released by the CVB showed that business travel increased by more than 8 percent last year and another increase of about 4 percent is expected this year.

Excellent air access into Atlanta and Orlando supports high international attendance, says Bracken. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is undergoing $5.4 billion in improvements that will be completed next year.

New Orleans, too, saw a big increase in business travel last year. Shows and meetings with attendance of more than 5,000 were up from 29 to 45 and a record-breaking 10.1 million visitors came to the city, says Angela Day, Director of Public Relations, New Orleans Metropolitan CVB (www.neworleanscvb.com). “New Orleans hosted eight of the top 12 medical meetings.” Bookings at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center are up 30 percent this year, she says.

New Orleans’ package of upscale hotel rooms and fine dining options are particularly important to professional groups, says Bracken, who took the American Society of Clinical Oncologists there last May. The event had a record 29,000 attendees and a show with 2,500 booths. “You have to have at least three-star rooms within walking distance, and dining is very important to these groups. It’s discussed a lot when they’re choosing a site.”  

On the safe side
According to the TIA study, nearly half of business travelers cite safety as a major consideration when they make travel decisions.  “Five years ago, safety wouldn’t even have been a consideration, let alone a primary deciding factor,” says Hardman. For trips of 300 miles or less, almost two-thirds of business travelers said they’re more likely to drive than fly. “People perceive driving as a safer way to travel. Midsize and smaller destinations in the Southeast benefit” because a 300-mile radius encompasses some of the country’s densest population centers, says Hardman. “People just feel safer in smaller markets,” he says. 

Midsize cities in the Southeast offer the right balance of size and control for security-minded groups. For example, the American Association for Laboratory Animal Sciences (AALAS, www.aalas.org) chose the Tampa Convention Center (www.visittampabay.com) for its annual meeting in October. The group needs a facility they can completely control, says Betty Cartwright, Director of Meeting and Financial Services. “New Orleans or Atlanta are too big for us. We require badges, and we have security at every door. We have to know who’s coming and going from the building. It’s too hard if there are other groups in the building at the same time.”  The AALAS October meeting had attendance of 4,400, second highest in the group’s history.

Yet the most security-conscious groups don’t necessarily base their choice on security, says Bracken, who manages meetings and shows for the government and military. “For these types of high-profile groups, security needs are at another level, no matter what’s available on site. They check out the destination to see if they like it, but they expect to bring their own or pay for additional security,” she says.

The National Governor’s Association, for instance, tends to choose hard-to-target sites, like the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia, she says. But the Army went to Fort Lauderdale, FL, for its Department of Information Management/Advanced Knowledge Management Symposium in September because of the rate package and the beach. Attendance topped 3,000, the highest in the event’s history, “not because of the security of the destination but because of its environment,” she says.
  
In the right place
Attendance at midsize shows in second- and third-tier cities in the Southeast is up, says Myra Starnes, President, Leisure Time Unlimited Inc., a Myrtle Beach, SC-based company that owns and manages shows throughout the country. She attributes the attendance increases at her shows to a combination of reasons closely related to travel trends. Not only are attendees and exhibitors more willing to drive, but also they’re willing to drive longer to avoid flying, she says. But the preference for driving has not reduced international attendance.  January’s Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Supply Show in Myrtle Beach drew 22,000, with attendees from as far away as China, Mongolia and Vietnam.

Smaller destinations also offer better packages, Starnes says. “Exhibitors and attendees find they can get the same product and service at a fraction of the price they would pay in a big destination, so they can bring their whole staff.” Most of all though, “big cities don’t give them the feeling of vacation and relaxation they want when they go to a show. Besides, after they get here, they don’t have to worry about safety. They’re not going to be a target in Myrtle Beach.”        

Even without the beaches and golf courses of a Myrtle Beach, other small cities in the Southeast have turned their size and location into big meeting assets. Covington/Northern Kentucky has become a thriving meetings destination in just a few years.

“We’re outside of the big cities and attendees like that. It’s safer and it’s easier to get to and get around,” says Marie Fuehner, Director of Convention Services, Northern Kentucky CVB (www.nkycvb.com). The area is at the intersection of Interstate highways and is easily accessible from the major Midwest and Midsouth population centers. Attendees who fly use the Cincinnati Airport. “We’re a second tier city with a first tier airport,” she says.

 The area has a plush 6-year-old convention center with 46,000 square feet of exhibit space and a 23,000-square-foot ballroom and an attached hotel. The CVB markets heavily, has a department dedicated to increasing attendance and provides sophisticated tools (see sidebar on page 42) and services to organizers. A survey of 2004 meetings showed that 50 percent increased attendance and 38 percent stayed the same, Fuehner says.