R.I. has more than its capital for meetings

The business of business, which took a hit in Rhode Island the last couple of years thanks to the national economic downturn, is on the rebound: The U.S. Travel Association, according to a recent report in USA Today, forecasts a 7 percent jump in national meeting and convention spending this year, to $90.7 billion, on the heels of a 15 percent drop in 2009.
And while the Rhode Island meeting and convention trade tends to center on the capital city of Providence, Warwick and Pawtucket are reaping ancillary business, as Newport continues its own successful marketing efforts.
“It’s a spillover,” said Herb Weiss, economic and cultural affairs officer for Pawtucket. “Providence has the convention center and hotels, but they don’t have Slater Mill, so if people really want to see where the economy began, they’ll come to Slater Mill.”
There is no active convention-recruiting plan for Pawtucket, said Robert Billington, executive director of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, which promotes Pawtucket and eight other communities. But there doesn’t have to be, he said.
“Essentially, our focus is the leisure market,” he said, where the bulk of his department’s marketing dollars go. “We really leave the convention and meeting business to the Providence-Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau, and they represent us, we work with them regularly.”
That doesn’t mean they don’t plan for conference trade, he said.
“We just planned a four-day meeting for a group out of Pennsylvania that was meeting here, we planned their rooms, their meals, their transportation, and we’ve hosted bigger conferences such as the World Canal Conference in 1996,” he said. “But we don’t necessarily market Blackstone Valley as a meeting location. We’re comfortable working with marketing us as part of Rhode Island and being there when they need us.”
A big chunk of meeting trade is hotel rooms, and Warwick competes neck and neck with Providence for that, booking rooms when conventions gather in the capital city, said Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the PWCVB. Providence has 2,251 hotel rooms; Warwick is close behind with 2,235. “Warwick hotels are particularly attractive to social, military, educational and fraternal groups,” she said. “The Crowne Plaza [Hotel Providence-Warwick, Warwick’s biggest hotel with some 34,000-square-feet of designer convention space], because of its outdoor space is appealing to dog-show groups, car shows and the like.”
In Providence, a convention can generate anywhere from $2 million to $5 million in business for a group using a significant number of rooms in the city, which spills over into Warwick, she said.
“We’re not trying to steal the convention business, we’re marketing the whole area, collectively,” said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian. In addition to being part of the PWCVB, “We also market on our own through our economic-development and tourism office,” he said. “We do tours for tour guides to acquaint them with our 39 miles of coast, for example, and our historic sites.”
A huge draw for business trade will be the opening of the $267 million intermodal project linking T.F. Green Airport to train service to Boston, he said.
“We’ve done a lot of promotion on that, it’s an easy link between plane and train, so even if part of your convention is in Boston, it’s a logical way to do part of it here as well,” Avedisian said.
Newport, though fairly removed from the Providence convention scene, has its own legendary lure of the mansions, Cliff Walk, great restaurants and historic sites, said Tim Walsh, vice president of sales at the Newport Convention and Visitors Bureau, and markets all of that in a concerted effort to keep the City by the Sea’s business trade strong.
“Our plans revolve around main components, the one taking the most effort being trade shows,” Walsh said. “Over the course of a year, we’ll host over a dozen of them. And the trend with a lot of shows is reverse trade, meaning there’s no booth to man and talk about your destination, but rather meeting planners at tables with pre-scheduled appointments. It’s very productive. We co-opted one with the PWCVB in Louisville. It takes a cooperative effort with hotels and other entities and splits the cost with other destinations.” Evan Smith, president and CEO of the Newport Convention and Visitors Bureau, said they also do client events in major markets in the East, inviting meeting planners in their database to have lunch and take part in a table-top trade show with hospitality partners.
“We’ll have a ‘Newport Day’ in Washington, Virginia, and others, we go to their city, it’s very successful, we get up to 60 meeting planners at a city,” he said.
Walsh said sales calls are key, and his trio of national sales managers has a “very aggressive quota” of making calls, meeting with clients who have or can bring business to Newport.
“We’re always cultivating those leads, if you can get them here, show them the hotels, the off-site venues, the team-building events at the mansions or lobster bakes, nothing sells a destination like a site inspection,” he said.
In Newport, Walsh said, things are rebounding; though business booking leads fell 21 percent from April 2009-March 2010, compared to April 2008-March 2009, generated leads were up 25 percent from April-July 2009, he said.
In addition, booked leads dropped 13 percent from April 2008 to March 2009, but were up 16 percent from April-July 2009, Walsh said. That means more money for the city overall. According to the U.S. Travel Association, each meeting and event traveler spends an average of $1,000 per trip.
Another good sign, Walsh said, is increased attendance at “destination overview” events, which Newport just hosted in mid-August, and has for 14 years. On average, 24 planners make the trip to Newport to check out the city. This year, they had 32 meeting planners from Philadelphia, Washington, Massachusetts and Connecticut, he said. “That takes cooperation of our city partners, hotels giving us rooms and meals [at no charge], harbor tours, trolley rides,” he said. “It’s a huge destination effort and a compliment we always get is how impressed they are at how the business industry works here as a team.”
The most recent destination overview, for example, showcased a variety of Newport businesses that donated their services, including a lobster bake at the Hyatt Regency, scenic rides from Viking Tours, lunch at the Hotel Viking, cocktails and appetizers at The Chanler at Cliff Walk, and a harbor cruise by Sightsailing Inc.
And meetings don’t have to be huge to be effective, Walsh said, pointing to a recent gathering of 10 pharmaceutical professionals who booked seven rooms; the average meeting/convention attendance is well over 100, he said.
At Slater Mill in Pawtucket, the smaller, historically appealing aspect has its own lure, said Steven Chandler, the mill’s manager of development and marketing. Slater Mill regularly hosts business retreats for places like the giants of toy making and travel, Hasbro Inc. and Collette Vacations respectively. Slater has also hosted the Rhode Island-based International Special Events Society.
“That was phenomenal, they transformed the second floor of the mill with furniture and lighting, and they do this monthly, all over the state,” he said. “It promotes local business and brings people here.”
At least once a month, Chandler said, Slater hosts business gatherings of up to 65 people, providing audio-visual gear, PowerPoint presentation and Internet access.
“The setting is beautiful, you’re in a historic building on a gorgeous river,” he said. “People come in to do business, but learn some history and have fun. It’s quite different from the usual meeting space.” &#8226