A story featured today on the CarolinaJournal.com website from the Charlotte Business Journal was attempting to be objective about the boondoggle that is the Charlotte Convention Center. Keep in mind that after the center really started losing money, the original consultants came back and said it needed to be bigger with a hotel attached. So, in a diminishing market, it’s losing even more money. But the supporters keep trying to say that there is a post 9/11 lag in convention attendance despite the fact (according to the Brookings Insitute) that convention center attendance has been down since 1993!!!
The following excerpt about Charlotte is pretty funny, they are now having to pay folks to attend their city:
The Shriners event is indicative of the changing nature of the convention business, where increasingly, as Newman explains, “the strategic approach to get business is through pay-to-play incentives.” To land the Shriners, Visit Charlotte gave the organization a discount on the convention center rent, and area hotels gave discounts on room rates. In addition, CRVA spent $50,000 to help underwrite the group’s expenses.
Now here’s the part of the story that is really scary. Keep in mind that both the Greensboro Koury Center and Wilmington Hilton (both privately owned) have occupancy rates in the 80% range:
In fiscal 2005, which ended June 30, the convention center occupancy rate was 39%, down from 52% in 2004 and 48% in 2003. CRVA Chief Executive Tim Newman says a 50% rate is considered “decent,” and a 60% rate “pretty healthy.”
The center’s occupancy rate for fiscal 2006 so far is 42%.
