Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Nov 17, 2014 13:49:34 GMT -6
The San Diego Tourism Authority is asking hotels in the Comic-Con International room block to freeze their rates at the 2016 level for the following two years, as part of its bid to keep the convention in the city. Already, 30 of the 50 participating hotels have agreed to do so. Meanwhile, Mayor Kevin Faulconer will attend the next Comic-Con board meeting to make an appeal to organizers to remain in the city; Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi said Anaheim has made a bid for Comic-Con, but the city’s convention bureau wouldn’t comment.
A plan to expand the San Diego Convention Center collapsed after the hotel-tax funding scheme was ruled unconstitutional, but Anaheim is preparing to break ground on its own 200,000-square-foot expansion. However, Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer said, “Some people had mistakenly implied that an expanded convention center would be the thing that solidified our decision to stay or go, but there are a number of factors to be addressed: hotel room rates, available space within hotels and outside the center, things that could mitigate the issue of having outgrown the convention center. An expansion would be great for the city and us, but if it doesn’t happen we’ve been able to make do without it, and if we can mitigate the concerns we do have we’ll be able to stay here.”
www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/nov/14/hoteliers-mayor-seek-comic-con-deal/
With an expanded convention center now a derailed dream, San Diego’s hospitality industry is stepping up its efforts to entice its most beloved convention, Comic-Con, to stay in town through 2018.
Well aware that rival cities like Anaheim and Los Angeles still have a keen interest in luring a convention of Comic-Con’s size and worldwide stature away from San Diego, Mayor Kevin Faulconer is appealing to local hoteliers to hold the line on future room rates during the July meeting when demand for lodging is the highest all year and rooms the costliest.
He plans to attend Comic-Con International’s board meeting on Sunday to make a personal pitch to organizers and remind them how much San Diego values their annual meeting, which draws more than 130,000 attendees, fills hotel rooms countywide, and commands international media coverage.
Comic-Con International currently has formal commitments to stay in San Diego through 2016, but future years remain up in the air.
While no decision on a future Comic-Con contract will be made at the group’s board meeting, the city’s Tourism Authority, which is responsible for securing long-term bookings at the convention center, is hoping to finalize an agreement by the first of the year.
Toward that end, the tourism agency is currently seeking agreements from hotels in the Comic-Con convention room block to not raise their rates above 2016 levels for the years 2017 and 2018. It is not the kind of request that would be made for any other convention, no matter how lucrative, Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi said. During this year’s convention, discounted room rates ranged from a low of $161 a night to $380.
Of the more than 50 hotels in the 2014 Comic-Con convention room block, close to 30 have already signed agreements stipulating that for 2017 and 2018 they will not deviate from what they pledged for 2016, Terzi said. In addition, major waterfront convention hotels are committing to some free meeting space for Comic-Con events, and the center itself will adhere to a much discounted rent, which this year totaled nearly $200,000.
“Comic-Con has expressed concern over the last several years that it’s getting very expensive for their attendees to come to San Diego and while they recognize that they’re here at a premium time of year, they feel they’re being taken advantage of to a degree,” Terzi said. “I believe that Comic-Con is ours to keep but we can’t get too cocky and create an environment that doesn’t work for their customers.”
The latest effort to cement a deal with Comic-Con feels a little like deja vu. Four years ago, former Mayor Jerry Sanders, as Faulconer is doing now, pressured the city’s hoteliers to offer more competitive room rates as part of an ultimately successful bid to win Comic-Con’s business through 2015. At the time, Los Angeles and Anaheim were also heavily courting Comic-Con.
Terzi said he believes Anaheim has submitted a formal proposal this time around to Comic-Con, although the Anaheim Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau would not confirm whether an offer has been made. Representatives from the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board declined to comment on Comic-Con.
“Comic-Con grew up here and is part of our San Diego family,” Mayor Faulconer said of the 45-year-old show. “There are a lot of other cities that would love to have Comic-Con there and continue to actively reach out, and we want to make sure we work very closely with Comic-Con on room rates and room blocks because if Comic-Con is not here it won’t help anyone and the hotels realize that.”
Although the always sold-out convention long ago outgrew the city’s bayfront convention center, organizers in recent years have increasingly taken advantage of meeting space at the waterfront hotels and other downtown venues to accommodate its attendees.
A long planned expansion of the convention center fell through earlier this year when an appellate court ruled that an already approved hotel tax to finance the $520 million project was unconstitutional.
Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer, while unwilling to discuss negotiations, made it clear organizers would like to remain in San Diego, but there are a number of factors guiding their decision. An expanded center, though, is not a must for staying in their current home, he said.
“Some people had mistakenly implied that an expanded convention center would be the thing that solidified our decision to stay or go, but there are a number of factors to be addressed: hotel room rates, available space within hotels and outside the center, things that could mitigate the issue of having outgrown the convention center,” Glanzer said. “An expansion would be great for the city and us, but if it doesn’t happen we’ve been able to make do without it, and if we can mitigate the concerns we do have we’ll be able to stay here.”
Anaheim, which already is the site of Comic-Con International’s much smaller show, WonderCon, plans to break ground early next year on a 200,000-square-foot expansion, noted Jay Burress, CEO of the Anaheim Visitor & Convention Bureau. Completion is expected in 2017.
“We’re also adding 2,900 new hotel rooms and dozens of new restaurants are opening in Anaheim,” Burress boasted. “Comic-Con is one of the truly great shows in our industry, and any city would love to have a show of its magnitude. We’ll just leave it at that.”
Tuni Kyi, general manager of the bayfront Marriott Marquis and Marina, acknowledged that an agreement to keep room rates unchanged for Comic-Con is something the hotel would never do for any other large group.
“Every year, we’re going up 4 to 5 percent in our rates, but we’re doing what they’ve asked us to do,” Kyi said of Comic-Con. “They know we want them here, but nobody would get what they get.”
Some downtown hotels, though, are reluctant to join the convention hotel block, much less cap their rates because they’re able to command some of the highest rates of the year when Comic-Con is in town. Last July, when the county’s room rates are often at their highest, the average nightly rate countywide during Comic-Con peaked at more than $250, at least $80 a night more than the highest rates during the rest of the month, according to data compiled by Smith Travel Research.
“It’s much better not being in the room block during Comic-Con,” said Thomas Goodwill, general manager of the 190-room Porto Vista hotel in Little Italy. “For us as an independent we can get a lot better rates than the bigger hotels. Comic-Con would have a lot more room for negotiation if they moved it to a month like November.”
A plan to expand the San Diego Convention Center collapsed after the hotel-tax funding scheme was ruled unconstitutional, but Anaheim is preparing to break ground on its own 200,000-square-foot expansion. However, Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer said, “Some people had mistakenly implied that an expanded convention center would be the thing that solidified our decision to stay or go, but there are a number of factors to be addressed: hotel room rates, available space within hotels and outside the center, things that could mitigate the issue of having outgrown the convention center. An expansion would be great for the city and us, but if it doesn’t happen we’ve been able to make do without it, and if we can mitigate the concerns we do have we’ll be able to stay here.”
www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/nov/14/hoteliers-mayor-seek-comic-con-deal/
With an expanded convention center now a derailed dream, San Diego’s hospitality industry is stepping up its efforts to entice its most beloved convention, Comic-Con, to stay in town through 2018.
Well aware that rival cities like Anaheim and Los Angeles still have a keen interest in luring a convention of Comic-Con’s size and worldwide stature away from San Diego, Mayor Kevin Faulconer is appealing to local hoteliers to hold the line on future room rates during the July meeting when demand for lodging is the highest all year and rooms the costliest.
He plans to attend Comic-Con International’s board meeting on Sunday to make a personal pitch to organizers and remind them how much San Diego values their annual meeting, which draws more than 130,000 attendees, fills hotel rooms countywide, and commands international media coverage.
Comic-Con International currently has formal commitments to stay in San Diego through 2016, but future years remain up in the air.
While no decision on a future Comic-Con contract will be made at the group’s board meeting, the city’s Tourism Authority, which is responsible for securing long-term bookings at the convention center, is hoping to finalize an agreement by the first of the year.
Toward that end, the tourism agency is currently seeking agreements from hotels in the Comic-Con convention room block to not raise their rates above 2016 levels for the years 2017 and 2018. It is not the kind of request that would be made for any other convention, no matter how lucrative, Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi said. During this year’s convention, discounted room rates ranged from a low of $161 a night to $380.
Of the more than 50 hotels in the 2014 Comic-Con convention room block, close to 30 have already signed agreements stipulating that for 2017 and 2018 they will not deviate from what they pledged for 2016, Terzi said. In addition, major waterfront convention hotels are committing to some free meeting space for Comic-Con events, and the center itself will adhere to a much discounted rent, which this year totaled nearly $200,000.
“Comic-Con has expressed concern over the last several years that it’s getting very expensive for their attendees to come to San Diego and while they recognize that they’re here at a premium time of year, they feel they’re being taken advantage of to a degree,” Terzi said. “I believe that Comic-Con is ours to keep but we can’t get too cocky and create an environment that doesn’t work for their customers.”
The latest effort to cement a deal with Comic-Con feels a little like deja vu. Four years ago, former Mayor Jerry Sanders, as Faulconer is doing now, pressured the city’s hoteliers to offer more competitive room rates as part of an ultimately successful bid to win Comic-Con’s business through 2015. At the time, Los Angeles and Anaheim were also heavily courting Comic-Con.
Terzi said he believes Anaheim has submitted a formal proposal this time around to Comic-Con, although the Anaheim Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau would not confirm whether an offer has been made. Representatives from the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board declined to comment on Comic-Con.
“Comic-Con grew up here and is part of our San Diego family,” Mayor Faulconer said of the 45-year-old show. “There are a lot of other cities that would love to have Comic-Con there and continue to actively reach out, and we want to make sure we work very closely with Comic-Con on room rates and room blocks because if Comic-Con is not here it won’t help anyone and the hotels realize that.”
Although the always sold-out convention long ago outgrew the city’s bayfront convention center, organizers in recent years have increasingly taken advantage of meeting space at the waterfront hotels and other downtown venues to accommodate its attendees.
A long planned expansion of the convention center fell through earlier this year when an appellate court ruled that an already approved hotel tax to finance the $520 million project was unconstitutional.
Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer, while unwilling to discuss negotiations, made it clear organizers would like to remain in San Diego, but there are a number of factors guiding their decision. An expanded center, though, is not a must for staying in their current home, he said.
“Some people had mistakenly implied that an expanded convention center would be the thing that solidified our decision to stay or go, but there are a number of factors to be addressed: hotel room rates, available space within hotels and outside the center, things that could mitigate the issue of having outgrown the convention center,” Glanzer said. “An expansion would be great for the city and us, but if it doesn’t happen we’ve been able to make do without it, and if we can mitigate the concerns we do have we’ll be able to stay here.”
Anaheim, which already is the site of Comic-Con International’s much smaller show, WonderCon, plans to break ground early next year on a 200,000-square-foot expansion, noted Jay Burress, CEO of the Anaheim Visitor & Convention Bureau. Completion is expected in 2017.
“We’re also adding 2,900 new hotel rooms and dozens of new restaurants are opening in Anaheim,” Burress boasted. “Comic-Con is one of the truly great shows in our industry, and any city would love to have a show of its magnitude. We’ll just leave it at that.”
Tuni Kyi, general manager of the bayfront Marriott Marquis and Marina, acknowledged that an agreement to keep room rates unchanged for Comic-Con is something the hotel would never do for any other large group.
“Every year, we’re going up 4 to 5 percent in our rates, but we’re doing what they’ve asked us to do,” Kyi said of Comic-Con. “They know we want them here, but nobody would get what they get.”
Some downtown hotels, though, are reluctant to join the convention hotel block, much less cap their rates because they’re able to command some of the highest rates of the year when Comic-Con is in town. Last July, when the county’s room rates are often at their highest, the average nightly rate countywide during Comic-Con peaked at more than $250, at least $80 a night more than the highest rates during the rest of the month, according to data compiled by Smith Travel Research.
“It’s much better not being in the room block during Comic-Con,” said Thomas Goodwill, general manager of the 190-room Porto Vista hotel in Little Italy. “For us as an independent we can get a lot better rates than the bigger hotels. Comic-Con would have a lot more room for negotiation if they moved it to a month like November.”