As competition heats up, so do incentives

Growing competition is upping the ante for convention incentives.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Meeting planners visiting the Steel City can mingle at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History or see an award-winning musical. In Cincinnati, they can point and click on a custom-made Web site for their group's event or even throw out the first pitch at a Reds game.
Whatever the gimmick, convention and visitors bureaus across the country are increasingly using incentives to fill their convention centers with business travelers and show off their communities in hopes that people will visit again. The competition has been especially fierce as business travel slowed in the past few years, but cities continued to build or expand convention facilities, creating more space than demand for it.
"There are more destinations willing to sweeten the pot," said Joseph R. McGrath, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Conventions are big business, though the exact amount of money generated by the hundreds of convention centers across the nation is difficult to track. In 2002, the average delegate going to a convention for three nights spent $753 on lodging, food, entertainment, car rental and other purchases, according to the International Association of Convention & amp; Visitor Bureaus.
Example
Next month, the Pittsburgh visitors bureau will host planners with the Religious Conference Management Association. The agenda includes a reception at the Carnegie Museum, a night at the Benedum Center to see "The Lion King," and a gala at a downtown hotel -- all paid for by local and state sponsors to help lure the group here.
Offering incentives to groups is nothing new. But the incentives have changed.
Providing shuttle bus service to hotels or giving hotel room rebates might have brought in a group to a city years ago. But since the construction of massive convention hotels with sometimes thousands of rooms, just having shuttle buses won't do anymore, McGrath said.
"If you don't have the right brick and mortar, you don't make the list," McGrath said.
Incentives commonly offered now include providing entertainment, publicizing the group's event or providing deep discounts on rent, food or meeting space. For example, the Greater Louisville Convention & amp; Visitors Bureau this year offered up to $10,000 in cash to groups to come there.
Leaving nothing to chance
Even the biggest convention hot spots, such as Las Vegas, aren't taking the appeal of their towns for granted in today's competitive climate.
"No place sells itself ... everyone is competing pretty fiercely for convention business," said Rob Powers, spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
The competition is partly due to small- and medium-sized cities' getting into the convention business or expanding existing facilities. Among them are Pittsburgh's $375 million, 1.5 million-square-foot David L. Lawrence Convention Center that opened this year; the Grand Wayne Center in Fort Wayne, Ind., which is undergoing a $39 million expansion; and a 40,000-square-foot expansion of Cincinnati's convention center that will break ground next year.
Then there are privately run facilities.
Colin Reed, CEO of Gaylord Entertainment, a Nashville-based company that owns and operates three convention center hotels, said there is a glut of municipal convention centers. He said private companies such as his are trying to attract different groups than the convention and visitors bureaus and are marketing themselves in a different way.
"We're all under one roof, we have restaurants, we have entertainment, we have hotels, we have big atriums where you can hold parties. The meeting planner, when they do business with us, doesn't have to worry about where people are staying," Reed said.
Closer to home
Another factor is business travel, which is on the rebound after a slowdown in the wake of the 2001 attacks. Some smaller cities became more attractive destinations as many groups stayed closer to home, said Julie Calvert, spokeswoman for the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"In an age and time where a lot of cities are offering about the same prices ... it's the little things that are making the difference," Calvert said.
The National Association of Counties has for years asked for incentives when booking their annual convention. This year, it is choosing sites for its 2008 and 2009 conferences and has asked interested cities to pay for dinner, entertainment and transportation for its gala dinner and plan a 5K run for the group. Seven cities have offered to host.