The R.I. Convention Center, which in December will celebrate its 15-year anniversary, undoubtedly has helped to better the leisure travel and tourism industries in Rhode Island by attracting large groups of people to the state capital. But quantifying just how much of an impact that has been can be tough, said R.I. Convention Center Authority (RICCA) Executive Director James P. McCarvill.
It’s hard to “draw a straight line” through its influences, he said last week.
“The economy is not that segmented anywhere that you can just draw a straight line between one thing and another,” he added. “What you can do is say, ‘What was here before and what is here now?’ So probably the biggest straight line that you could draw would be the development of the retail space and the hotels.”
Those hotels include the Hotel Providence and the Marriott Renaissance Hotel Providence, he said. The renovation of the former Holiday Inn, which is now the Hilton Providence, was another big improvement for the city.
The number of events coming to the Convention Centter is growing, also. The number of room nights booked for November more than doubled from 2007. While 13,645 room bookings were reported this month, only 5,099 were booked during November 2007, according to the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau (PWCVB).
Just one event, The International Microelectronics and Packaging Society’s annual IMAPS Symposium, was set to bring 2,000 people to the capital last week. That event, the PWCVB said, would have an economic impact of $2.4 million.
And the organizations that choose Providence seem to do so for its cultural resources. As IMAPS said in announcing its conference, Providence is a destination “where you will be able to enjoy plenty of family fun, a critically acclaimed arts scene, a sophisticated nightlife and world-class dining options.”
PWCVB President and CEO Martha Sheridan said in an interview last week that there were only three hotels to market in Providence when the RICC opened.
“Because we were able to attract larger groups, we had more delegates in the destination, oftentimes during off-peak travel times, and they obviously patronized businesses around the convention center,” she said. “In my opinion, a lot of our restaurant and retail product grew as a result [of the Convention Center].”
During 2007 those who came to Rhode Island for conventions spent an estimated $4.24 million outside their conferences, PWCVB said.
R.I. Director of Tourism Operations Mark Brodeur said last week that bringing up to 10,000 people into the state for a convention has been an “essential part” of branding Rhode Island as a destination for leisure travel. He agreed with McCarvill, saying that the business and conventions and leisure industries can’t easily be separated.
And the marketability that was created this year when the R.I. Convention Center was connected to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center (READ MORE) is another big step forward, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri told the PWCVB’s annual meeting. The addition of a train station attached to T.F. Green Airport (PVD) in Warwick will further increase the state’s tourism and convention markets, he added.
McCarvill, who on Oct. 30 was inducted into the PWCVB Hall of Fame, agreed.
“Everything feeds on everything else,” he said. “Is the convention center more successful because the airport was renovated? I would think so. Is the Convention Center more successful because the Providence Place mall is there? Marginally so – it has to enter into somebody’s decision-making process when they’re trying to make the cut with those last few places they’re thinking about going.”
At the same time, the convention and tourism markets are constantly changing, McCarvill said. When the R.I. Convention Center opened, it didn’t have the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and Hartford Convention Center to compete with.
“So in the convention-center world, it has to be a continual escalation [of services],” he said. •
