March 7, 2009 in Business

Fallout from junket incidents worries convention promoters

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Photos by Dan Pelle photo

Harry Sladich, Mark Richard and Mary Verner join hospitality industry workers for a Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau rally at River Park Square on Friday to highlight the benefits of the convention business.
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Public anger over junkets taken by executives whose companies received federal bailout money threatens a convention and meetings business that employs a million people, including thousands in Spokane, local officials said Friday at a River Park Square rally.

Although Spokane has not yet lost any convention bookings, said Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau President Harry Sladich, competition for the midsize groups that come to the city will increase if heavyweights like Las Vegas start looking for business too small to bother with in better times.

“They’re going to go fishing in the same pond I’m in,” he told almost 100 business owners and employees who depend on visitors for their livelihoods.

Whitney Wood and Stephanie Walker are two of them. They work in room service at the Davenport Hotel.

Winter conventions, Wood said, can mean the difference between three shifts in a week and five.

“We want the big meetings,” added Doubletree Hotel cook James Burch. “They keep everybody busy.”

Deena Caruso, owner of Finders Keepers, said she had no idea how well her business would do when she opened a second location on West Second Avenue to tap convention-goers. No matter the type of group, she said, they come into her store.

In 2008, Spokane hosted 162 meetings, conventions and events that generated $198.4 million for the local economy, Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said.

The get-togethers expose hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area, many of whom will come back to the area, she said.

Verner said meetings promote ongoing education, expose workers to the latest trends in their industries, and create bonds that pay off in future exchanges of information.

“We should not stop legitimate business practices,” she said.

The U.S. Travel Association ran an ad in Wednesday’s USA Today newspaper saying political rhetoric and possible legislation aimed at the abuse of government money is spooking groups not getting assistance.

Sladich said a survey by Meetings and Conventions magazine found 52 percent of meeting planners felt pressured by adverse publicity, and 20 percent had canceled events.

“Everybody’s freaking out,” Sladich said.

The timing is particularly bad for Spokane, he said, because CVB officials and partners from Madison, Wis., and Hartford, Conn., will be in the Washington, D.C., area promoting their cities as convention sites.

Contact Bert Caldwell at (509) 459-5450 or bertc@spokesman.com.

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