Empty Ballrooms

Last summer's storms are still blowing business away, say many luxury hoteliers with large meeting space. Although tourism has been steady for much of the year, they're seeing signs of a slowdown in August and September, as groups and conventions might decide not to schedule meetings here during the hurricane season.

"August and September are of some concern," says Jack Wert, director of the Greater Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We know that there are some meetings that have not booked in that time period. I doubt we're going to be able to recover that business; it's too late."

Hotel executives like Kerry Mitruska, area director of sales and marketing for the Registry Resort, have launched a number of initiatives to boost business in August and September. Mitruska says out-of-state groups are reluctant to come to Southwest Florida because of last year's hurricanes.

As a result, his staff is trying to capture as much in-state meeting business as possible, appealing to leisure guests through repeat mailers to former guests, direct mail and investment in key word search on the Internet. The intent is to supplement the group market somewhat with the leisure market, he says.

At the Marco Island Marriott, which has the largest meeting facility in Collier County, with 60,000 square feet of space, activity during hurricane season is hit-and-miss, says Mark Vaughan, director of marketing. "We feel like we're going to be OK because of activity booked prior to that," he says.

Vaughan notes that they've also had positive results from adding incentives for meeting attendees, such as extending their stay by adding a couple of days onto the group rate.

Despite worries about the fall, Mitruska said this first quarter was the best first quarter in the history of the hotel. "Both from meeting standpoint and leisure standpoint our business has been very strong," as the economy has rebounded and the length of stay has increased, he says.

The average stay for a meeting is three to four days, and group sizes range from 10 to 400 rooms at the area's top meeting and convention hotels, according to hospitality officials. And pharmaceutical and insurance groups lead the way in the types of groups that choose Southwest Florida for their meetings.

The Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa was recognized for its excellent facilities last fall by Insurance Conference Planner and Corporate Meetings & Incentives magazines. The resort has more than 73,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor meeting space, not to mention an 11,000 square-foot beach pavilion.

"That's a good sign that the economy's getting healthier again," says Joe Thompson, director of sales and marketing at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point. He adds that the resort had its best January through April since opening four years ago.

And when they staying, they're spending more, Mitruska says. Instead of buying less expensive bottles of wine and menus and cutting out company-funded golf tournaments and spa treatments, as he has seen in the past couple of years, customers are springing for more luxuries and diversions.

"That's because their businesses were successful and they were able to stretch their budgets," he says.