Savannah’s International Trade & Convention Center is anticipating its best year ever for conventions and trade shows.
Speaking to the Georgia International and Maritime Trade Center Authority recently, board chairman Mark V. Smith announced that events booked at the trade center for 2013 represent nearly 84,000 hotel-room nights in the city’s convention district, which would break the previous record in 2004, the year of the G-8 Summit.
“It’s gratifying to see the center performing as advertised,” Smith said, noting that events at the facility have generated well over 800,000 new hotel-room nights in the area, equal to some $200 million in direct spending by event attendees.
“This performance, coupled with the community’s decision to fund trade center development up front and then to support its activities through a share of the hotel-motel tax, has enabled us to take a very active approach to attracting high-value convention and trade show groups to Savannah.”
It’s also the result of an ongoing partnership with Visit Savannah — which is charged with marketing the city to convention groups — and downtown group-oriented hotels, including the adjacent Westin Savannah Harbor.
“We’ve long had a solid business relationship with the Westin” says Bob Coffey, trade center general manager. “Along with serving frequently as city-wide convention headquarters, they also place a good number of smaller meetings here.”
A community-funded, free-to-user water ferry system connects other frequent citywide players such as the Hyatt Regency Savannah and Marriott Riverfront with the trade center and Hutchinson Island.
Coffey noted that the “Savannah Belles” ferry more than 600,000 passengers a year across the river to conventions, trade shows and festivals.
Visit Savannah President Joe Marinelli also sees success in the numbers.
“The lure of one of America’s most beautiful cities, high-quality hotels and an attractive riverfront convention center is a pretty compelling package for meeting and festival planners,” he said.
“As we have raised the profile of Savannah over the last five or six years, the awareness factor among meeting planning professional has grown, too,” Marinelli said. “There is more interest from national groups than ever before and the trade center is a key component in attracting these groups.”
Marinelli said the pace of Visit Savannah’s convention bookings for the next few years is stronger than in the past.
“And the best part is, we are attracting new customers while retaining those valuable clients that come back year after year.”
ABOUT THE TRADE CENTER
The Savannah International Trade and Convention Center opened in May 2000 and has since hosted more than 1.7 million attendees at some 2,000 events. The trade center has received a number of honors from the convention industry and is a seven-time winner of the industry’s “Prime Site Award.”
The trade center is managed by SMG, an international leader in public facility management.
ON THE WEB
For more information, go to www.smgworld.com. For more information on the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center, go to savtcc.com.
