City leaders say Columbus is considered a great spot for conventions - it's centrally located, close to the airport and has good nightlife. Despite those pluses the city is losing convention business.
The Greater Columbus Convention Center on North High Street was practically a ghost town Friday afternoon. A few people walked down the halls, although they could have been trying to escape the cold. There was a small dental group meeting. But there were more construction workers than convention goers.
Men up and down the first floor spackled dry wall, necessary work after a water main break flooded much of the first floor of the 400,000 square foot building earlier this month.
Although the recent water main break caused a brief pause in some conferences, the decline in business has been happening for some time. Brian Ross is Vice President of sales for "Experience Columbus." Ross says the number of hotel rooms booked for future meetings declined more than 30 percent in 2007. He says it's tough to keep up with the competition: Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati, even Sandusky, on the shores of Lake Erie, which has an 800 room water park and resort hotel.
"They have or are developing a better convention infrastructure. And what I mean by that is hotels and convention center connectivity, the type of hotels. We have a number of hotels around our convention center but we're missing that one large convention headquarter hotel." Says Ross.
So to keep up with the competition Ross says the city is always trying to make itself more appealing to businesses.
"If we are able to add more hotels particularly a facility that is a headquarter hotel we'll be able to book, not only retain that, but maybe book other business along side that." Says Ross.
Deborah Sexton is President and C-E-O of Professional Convention Management Association in Chicago. Sexton says Columbus is not alone in losing business. She says the convention industry is not growing as fast as it has in the past couple of years.
With the volatile economy on many people's minds Sexton says businesses are definitely tightening their convention budget belts. But she says the convention industry is the last to feel an economic downturn and the last to come out of one.
"A lot of it has to do with we book business further out. So we've already got a lot of business on the books, and so you don't see the downturn as clearly as you might and there is still business travel. So, and there will be even with a downturn. Business still is conducted so it takes a while to really see a major trend and to have that affect our industry as quickly as it might affect a manufacturing firm, for example." Says Sexton.
And Sexton adds that's good news for second tier convention locations like Columbus because there are less expensive.
"So someone sitting down saying I need to book my convention two years out but I know my budget's going to be flat so maybe I want to take it out of a city like Chicago or Washington D.C. and put it into a second tier city that might cost less thus I can deliver the same quality."
Ross says even if the country heads into a recession there is still some good news for the Columbus's convention business.
"With our state association base and some of our government groups a lot of those still have to meet." Says Ross.
Ross says the new 500-room hotel, which is in what he calls "serious conversations", would be located across from the convention center and could be ready for occupancy by 2012.
Mandie Trimble, WOSU News.