Economic Benefit of Single Property Conventions
Hotel Meetings Bring Big Bucks to San Diego
By Joanne DiBona, SDCVB Communications Director
When most San Diegans think of conventions, their first thoughts are probably linked to the high-profile trade shows and conventions held in the San Diego Convention Center. It's no wonder. Since its opening in 1989, the San Diego Convention Center has contributed over $4 billion to the San Diego regional economy, generated over 10,000 jobs, and attracted more than 7 million conventioneers and guests, making it one of San Diego's most important economic engines.
What most San Diegans don't realize is that conventions and meetings, just like their delegates, come in all types and sizes. Thousands of "smaller" conventions, which do not require a facility the size of the convention center, are hosted by San Diego hotels annually. These conventions, known in the industry as "single-property" meetings, carry a formidable economic punch all their own.
Last year, local convention hotels throughout the county opened their doors to more than 13,000 association and corporate meetings, which together attracted an estimated 1.8 million delegates to San Diego. The economic impact of these meetings alone is estimated to be in excess of $1.5 billion annually--dollars which pass through many hands as they are distributed throughout the local economy, enriching plenty of San Diego businesses along the way.
These single-property convention delegates spend an average of $816 dollars during their stay in the host city (not counting the transportation costs to the convention destination), according to 1999 spending figures released by the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Who gets a slice of this economic pie? Obviously, the hotel property hosting the meeting will receive revenues from the rental of meeting space and the booking of room nights. But that is not where the spending stops.
Those delegate dollars roll over as well into all areas of the county's economy, because the convention and meetings business supports dozens of companies that deal extensively in the diverse job of planning and producing these meetings in local hotels. These include businesses such as audio visual companies, destination management companies, special event planning, food services, catering companies, etc.
The economic impact also trickles down to hundreds of other businesses that provide products and services for conventions: from the florist who supplies the table décor; to the local musician who performs at a special event or reception; to the telecommunications company that provides cell phone service; to the local printer that designs a meeting program; to the photographer who captures the event on film. Even the recycling company in Santee, the paper supplier in El Cajon, or the commercial laundry service company in Chula Vista can benefit from business generated by a single-property convention.
Direct personal spending by the delegates themselves infuses even more dollars into the local economy as they venture out into the community to spend their discretionary dollars in local restaurants, at area attractions, on the golf course, or shopping in retail stores, etc.
While San Diego has seen a growing share of this lucrative single-property meeting business, it does not come without effort. As in any other business, competition is intense and meeting planners across the country have to be "sold" on San Diego and reminded that this is a perfect destination for their organizations.
That challenging task falls into the hands of the sales team at the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau (ConVis). A team of national sales managers, which includes those working in the ConVis satellite offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., are responsible for selling San Diego as a premiere convention and meeting site to association and corporate meeting planners across the country.
ConVis sales staff, often accompanied by representatives from some of the 90 convention and conference hotel properties in San Diego County, attend trade shows and sales arenas across the country in their persistent efforts to get the word out about San Diego.
Several of the ConVis staff are charged with specific markets. For example, an "Express Meetings" sales manager deals with booking meetings with 50 participants or less . Other sales managers target medical or technological conventions.
ConVis also boasts the only dedicated military and defense sales department among convention and visitor bureaus nationwide. In its first year of operation the department, dedicated solely to the solicitation and servicing of military convention and meetings business, booked 5,700 room nights to military personnel. By fiscal year 2000, that number soared to 90,000+ room nights. San Diego is now in number two position as the largest user of federal government room nights in the nation, second only to Washington, D.C.
ConVis staff are also based in Washington D.C. and Chicago in order to capture the attention of meeting planners representing a wide variety of corporate and association accounts in those areas.
"Selling a convention site is really like selling any other product," said Reint Reinders, ConVis President and CEO. "There's a tremendous amount of competition out there, and you simply have to convince your client that your product is the very best."
Judging from the dramatic growth of the convention and meetings business in San Diego, that message is definitely getting across to convention and meeting organizers across the nation and around the world.
