Convention booking requires flexibility, report says

The economic downturn and decreases in travel spending among conventioneers and meeting organizers have turned the convention world upside down.

Winning their business for a vastly expanded Convention Center in Center City is going to take some new thinking, according to a report out Tuesday from the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"Nothing is normal in this economy," said Jack Ferguson, incoming president of the bureau charged with the Herculean task of booking space at the sprawling Convention Center when its expansion debuts in early March. "The new norm is a different way of doing business today than it was prior to 2008."

The new essentials for attracting convention business, booking group travel, and increasing international visitation to the city are outlined in the bureau report, "Navigating the New Norm."

Among the 34-page document's key findings:

Customers for meetings and conventions demand more service and incentives for their money.

The international traveler's booking window is much narrower. Nearly 20 percent of international leisure bookings to Philadelphia are coming within two weeks of the actual travel dates.

Event organizers are using sports commissions or convention and visitors bureaus to plan major sporting events. An example is the 2009 Army-Navy weekend, which generated an estimated $35 million in economic impact.

Group travel, such as by motor coach, has become more attractive for domestic travelers because it is being seen as an environmentally conscious way to travel and explore a destination.

Life-sciences meetings, which make up more than half of all conventions in Philadelphia, have been affected by a wave of mergers and acquisitions, but the city expects to see a rebound.

When it opens in March after a $786 million expansion, the Convention Center will have a million square feet of salable space and be able to host two major conventions, or a convention and trade show, simultaneously.

So far, the bureau has more than $2.5 billion in bookings for the bigger center for 2011 through 2026.

The level of competition is fiercer than ever, as Philadelphia now has to compete against second- and third-tier destinations, such as Dallas and Denver, for business, Ferguson said. Before the recession, it only had to worry about other first-tier cities, such as Chicago and Washington.

"The customer is doing more with less, and what he or she wants to see is that we're also giving them more for less," he said.

There is a lot at stake for the region's multibillion-dollar hospitality industry, which employs 55,000 in Philadelphia alone.

Convention and group business accounted for the largest segment, 37 percent, of the city's hotel business last year. The individual business traveler came second, at 30 percent, followed by the individual leisure traveler, who filled 29 percent of Center City hotel rooms in 2009.

Average daily rates at Center City's 10,799 hotel rooms declined to $150.60 last year, from $172.55 in 2008, reflecting less demand, according to industry figures.

But there are signs that occupancy is returning. Through the first six months of the year, occupancy was up 10 percent from 2009.

The Convention Center expansion is being marketed as a "world premiere," much like a movie.

Trade shows, which dovetail into the convention business and "can change on a dime," as opposed to booking three to five years in advance, will be heavily targeted, Ferguson said. The expansion features 528,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space.

Among the Convention Center's biggest coup in 2011 is Lightfair International, billed as the world's largest architectural and commercial lighting trade show, which previously held its annual gathering in New York's Javits Center. About 97 percent of the exhibit space is sold for the eight-day show in May.

To read a summary

of the annual report from the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, go to http://go.philly.com/ pcvb2010

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