Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC Rick
I read so two different views expressed consistently in this latest convention hotel thread.
Do not take it personally.
1) Gee...it would be great to see a truly tall high-rise finally get built.
2) Salt Lake City needs a convention hotel dedicated to that point.
I mean which is more important to you?
The second seems to be the secondary concept. That is the way I read it anyway.
Look I love High-rise construction and have since I was a kid. With no plans on that hotel being built yet, what is the fascination building tall for the sake of SLC height? Building beautiful is a much cooler concept.
Most really tall hotels in NYC look like dogs...yet they are very tall. Also the circular hotel in some images is used up.
Once again, how many conventions does SLC get a year? As someone wrote, I have seen Salt Lake City lose conventions because the hotel was too far away. How many conventions do you think are lost this way?
Finally, has anyone ever seen a truly tall (newer) hotel (The older designs from the 40's do not count because they are spectacular in many instances...neither do odd LV designs which are spectacular but truly would only work there) that just looks fantastic?
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I agree that I don't want a tall building just for a tall building's sake. The 222 bldg on Main seems like it'll probably be pretty ugly. So, I'm not too excited about it. (Even though it's not an example of a super tall bldg at only 22 stories, it'd still be ugly if it were 60 stories. Maybe uglier as its ugliness would really stick out at 60 stories.) I lived in NYC for a couple of years and there are a lot of really ugly tall bldgs there.
So, I definitely don't think SLC just needs a tall blds just to have one, even if it's ugly.
I was searching the web and found this:
In 2006, the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau:
Saw the completion of the expanded Salt Palace convention center.
Booked 574,661 hotel room nights.
Booked 31 citywide conventions.
Accommodated 295,300 convention delegates.
Saw $323,807,512 in total spending on hotel, restaurant, retail, entertainment and local transportation by Utah visitors
Some recent news items:
The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau recently won the bid to host the Fraternal Order of Police's 2011 convention,
beating out Boston in the process.
The police association meets every two years, and the
2011 citywide convention is expected to draw 5,000 to 7,000 attendees, generate 16,000 room nights and have an economic impact on Salt Lake of $6 million during the August 12-20 meeting, the bureau said.
The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau's convention sales team recently confirmed the booking of
YMCA's 2010 annual convention.
Salt Lake edged Nashville to bring an estimated 6,000 attendees and 10,575 room nights in mid-July. The convention will be at the Salt Palace and is projected to have an economic impact of more than $5.2 million.
The convention is a forum for inspiration, education and networking among YMCAs. Representation will include staff and volunteers from 2,600 U.S. YMCAs and a delegation from approximately 25 other countries.
And an article from March 2007:
Convention sales rose 16% in '06
By Jenifer K. Nii
Deseret Morning News
It was a year of record numbers, an expanded facility and unprecedented returns. But there's still work to do.
The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau reported Thursday that its sales topped $330 million in 2006, and that it set records in the number of conventions and meeting delegates in Salt Lake last year. The 2006 sales results were 16 percent ahead of 2005 and well ahead of the $298 million reported during the 2002 Olympic year, according to the bureau report.
"We saw incredible growth in the transient room tax (revenues)," said Scott Beck, the bureau's president. "To see that transient room tax for the year eclipse the Olympic year by such a significant dollar amount is the most positive aspect of 2006."
In addition, Beck said, the 295,300 convention delegates that came to Utah in 2006 set a new record. Many of them came as part of the Outdoor Retailer trade shows, which this year held its show in the expanded Salt Palace.
"The fact that we can now host larger conventions, you know, the proof is in the pudding," Beck said.
He attributed the year's results to "incredible synergy" between the bureau and the rest of the hospitality/tourism community, including the state and travel partner Delta Air Lines.
"We're not the only ones marketing Salt Lake as a destination," Beck said. Ski resorts do their part, as do hoteliers and the state's tourism office.
"For the third year in a row, the state is also spending significant dollars marketing the state," Beck said. "That is so important to us. As weird as it sounds, when we try to convince someone to some to Salt Lake, versus Seattle or Denver or San Antonio, we first have to convince them to come to Utah. So that branding by the state, and the incredible value that has for us, and the fact that it's being done at such a high level ... those are all things that are helping us look forward with great energy and high expectations. People are beginning to understand that we are different than they might expect."
And the money isn't just flowing and growing in Salt Lake, Beck said. The largest growth in the hotel industry was in the outlying areas — the south and west valleys, according to the Rocky Mountain Lodging Report.
"Which means that hoteliers in the south valley can be excited about what's going on at the Salt Palace or downtown," Beck said. "We call it compression: when downtown Salt Lake is full, it pushes people to the outlying areas. And that's at the basis of the importance of the convention center."
Despite the massive Rotary International convention this summer, Beck said it's likely 2007 won't be another record-setting year for the bureau. However, he said, 2008 and 2009 are already looking "incredibly strong," based on advance bookings.
Looking ahead, the bureau has launched a multi-pronged growth strategy. The top objective, according to Beck, is a sales redeployment strategy focused on filling the expanded Salt Palace.
"The construction of this building was faster and well ahead of our ability to change our sales deployment to reflect the current size of the building we have," Beck said.
The Salt Palace is now 694,000 square feet, putting Salt Lake in the top 10 percent of convention facilities in the United States, Beck said.
A second leg of the bureau's growth agenda is a shifting of resources toward online marketing, Beck said, which is quickly becoming the method of choice by individuals and groups to research and book travel.
Third, the bureau will continue its efforts to dispel misconceptions about Utah and what it has to offer, Beck said. And what it has to offer, he said, is a metropolitan city at smaller-town costs. Where hotel rooms in New York City run hundreds of dollars a night right now, Beck said hotels in Utah can be had for a fraction of that.
"We have all the elements of an incredible city," he said. "They're all here: the restaurant scene, the night life, the incredible natural environment and activities. We have incredible hotels, a great convention center. Add to that the value component, and it bodes very well for us moving forward."
One thing that isn't a concern: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' massive redevelopment project, right across the street from the Salt Palace.
"This is the honest truth: it was much more of a liability for us having that mall empty with nothing in it than it is being torn down in preparation for something bigger," Beck said. With The Gateway now just a block from the Salt Palace's expanded west entrance on 300 West, and the development of a unique shopping neighborhood on 300 South, Beck said there's still plenty for visitors to do.
"These are all things that make us very excited about the future," he said. "Construction is difficult to deal with, but the long-term view is that there's a $1.2 billion investment being made in downtown Salt Lake."
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