Attracting conventions: Hilton heightens hospitality

By Gina Smith, gnsmith@thestate.com

Midlands leaders are pumped that the "missing link" to the 2 1/2- year-old regional convention center will open across the street Friday.

The long-awaited, $32 million Hilton hotel at Park and Senate streets will give visitors a place to lay their collective heads after a long day of meetings at the convention center.

Since the convention center opened in September 2004, the lack of an affiliated hotel has meant more one-day, local events -- weddings and family reunions -- than planners had hoped for. Now, the privately owned Hilton should put the convention center over the top, say those involved, attracting regional and national groups and pumping millions into the economy.

Columbia should be especially attractive to larger groups that want to book hundreds of rooms within walking distance of meeting rooms, months, even years, in advance, tourism officials say.

"It opens up a new market for us, groups we couldn't go after before," said Ric Luber, president of the authority that oversees the convention center.

Look for groups interested in the riverfront and USC's research campus, both blocks away, to book the convention center. Large religious and political conventions also could continue to be a draw.

But competition for those groups is fierce. Dozens of nearby cities -- including Charlotte, Raleigh and Knoxville -- have built their own convention complexes.

The bandwagon began six or seven years ago, market analysts say, when cities realized they could both grab new tourist dollars and spawn businesses with a convention center/hotel combo.

Including accommodations, those attending Columbia events, for example, spend $175 a day, said Dave Zunker, vice president for Columbia's visitors bureau. The money is seen as painless, creating no drag on local services such as schools.

"That advice (to build convention centers and hotels) was good," said Rick Swig, president of San Francisco-based hotel advisers RSBA & Associates. "But it may have been given to too many towns all at the same time."

If Columbia's complex is to thrive, its niche must be unique, market experts say. Officials say they're off to a good start, booking about 700 events a year when they had hoped for 500. That's two a day, or 350,000 visitors. All without a hotel.

According to Mack Stone, the facility's general manager, the center's niche focuses on:

-- * Being centrally located. Columbia has the state's only downtown convention facility, and it is within walking distance of 45 bars and restaurants. Nearby are loads of attractions such as museums and Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden.

-- * An old-fashioned friendliness that embraces a 21st-century economy. Tourism officials are selling a new Southern city brimming with hospitality but also home to an emerging knowledgebased economy, as evidenced by USC's research campus. USC is the center's biggest client. The National Hydrogen Association will meet at the center in 2009, a tip to the state's role in developing hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

-- * Being cost-effective. While its prices are comparable to those in other S.C. cities, Columbia doesn't charge for setting up tables or providing wireless Internet access, Stone said. Plus, dining out, shopping and attractions are affordable.

Tourism officials have booked 11 groups through 2009 -- including the hydrogen convention -- with the Hilton's opening in mind.

But many event planners won't say "yes" until they can taste the food and swim in the pool. Officials are courting 38 meeting planners who visited the convention center earlier and indicated interest in booking once the Hilton opened.

National groups book three to five years in advance, so local events for now will continue to fill gaps on the calendar, Stone said.

Before going with a privately owned hotel, city officials in 2004 tried to publicly finance it.

"The idea of taxpayers funding a hotel is just bizarre and unconscionable," said Kevin Fisher, a City Council critic who ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year.

When the city gave in to public pressure and pursued a private hotel, three firms sued, claiming they were owed $3.4 million for work done before the switch. The consolidated suits may go to court in 2008, say the city's legal staffers.

In the end, city taxpayers paid the Windsor/Aughtry Co., the hotel's Greenville developer, $6 million in subsidies to build and operate the hotel.

"There's been a lot of political blood spilt to get here," Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said. "But we've done it. The convention center and its hotel is the cornerstone of Columbia's renaissance."