From Hilton Head in the south to the Outer Banks in the north, South Carolina and North Carolina provide a diverse range of coastal destinations for memorable meetings. There are historic waterfront towns, barrier islands, long stretches of beach, and plenty of wildlife preserves to explore.
Along 500 miles of shoreline are convention facilities, upscale resorts and secluded retreats at destinations with value seasons devoid of the summer crowds.
Visitors have been flocking back to the coast in healthy numbers in the years since the tourism doldrums of earlier this century, with major waterfront destinations in both states continuing to show both hotel occupancy and average rate increases.
For the first 10 months of last year, Wilmington’s revenue per available room was up 4 percent over the same period in 2005; Hilton Head–Beaufort was up 9 percent; Myrtle Beach was up 9.5 percent; and Charleston was up 5.3 percent, according to Smith Travel Research figures.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Myrtle Beach
The state’s largest beach destination has more than 100 golf courses and doubles as both a golf and family destination mecca, attracting 13 million visitors per year. Collectively called the Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach and a number of small towns anchor the region, which stretches for 60 miles along the coast.
Among its 460 hotels and condos totaling 72,000 accommodations units are more than 20 properties that can take meeting groups of 200 or more people.
“The entire destination is going through an upgrading process,” says Jean Ann Brakefield, vice president of the Myrtle Beach Area CVB. “We continue to position ourselves as ideal for meetings with our golf and our spring and fall off-season rates.”
Five years ago, she says, there were no four-star hotels. Since then, two AAA Four Diamond properties have debuted: the 402-room Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel and the Myrtle Beach Marriott Resort at Grande Dunes.
Meanwhile, the Mediterranean-style Marina Inn opened at the Grande Dunes resort and residential community last October. A member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, it features 66 rooms, 131 villas and 25,000 square feet of meeting space.
Other major developments in Myrtle Beach include a renovation of the 385-room Hilton Myrtle Beach Resort, which closed Nov. 8 and at press time was scheduled to reopen Jan. 4. The project includes upgrades to meeting space, a new entrance and a fitness center expansion, among other improvements. Oceanfront pool renovations were completed at the resort last summer. The biggest project in the property’s $14.7 million makeover is a new 12,500-square-foot conference center, which is slated for completion in January 2008 and will connect to the hotel’s existing 32,000 square feet of meeting space.
The Hilton is part of the 145-acre Kingston Plantation, also managed by Hilton and under the same ownership. It has 1,500 accommodations units, including the Embassy Suites Myrtle Beach Hotel, and 63,000 square feet of meeting space.
Among the other meetings standouts in Myrtle Beach are the Avista Resort, the Crown Reef Resort, the Bay Watch Resort and Conference Center, the Grande Shores Ocean Resort, and the Ocean Dunes Resort and Villas.
The destination’s largest meeting facility, the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, includes a 100,000-square-foot, column-free exhibit hall and a 16,800-square-foot ballroom. The center is just four blocks from the beach, six miles from Myrtle Beach International Airport and within one mile of 4,000 hotel rooms.
Meanwhile, work began in July on the $400 million, 150-acre Hard Rock Park, which will be a very significant attraction for Myrtle Beach, according to Brakefield.
“They could have chosen any destination to build but they chose us,” she says.
Located off U.S. 501 at Fantasy Harbour and slated to open in spring 2008, the rock ’n’ roll-themed park will feature 40 attractions, an amphitheater, restaurants, and stores.
There are also plans for a new $230 million airport terminal, which will eventually have 14 gates. The entire project is slated to open at Myrtle Beach International Airport in 2009.
A notable resort 25 miles south of the airport is Pawleys Plantation Golf and Country Club on Pawleys Island, which has 190 villas, a 6,500-square-foot conference center and a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course.
Charleston and the Resort Islands
Charleston not only boasts an historic port city dating to 1670, but also the excitement of new entertainment and retail options around its convention complex in North Charleston.
“People come to Charleston for the history—that’s the No. 1 reason—and now also for our fabulous restaurants,” says Suzanne Wallace, director of sales for the Charleston Area CVB.
The city held its first annual food and wine celebration in March 2006. This year’s edition, the BB&T Charleston Food and Wine Festival, will be held March 1–4.
The city moved up to fourth place in 2006 in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards readers’ survey; it ranked 6th in 2005.
Major attractions include Fort Sumter, site of the first shot fired in the Civil War; the South Carolina Aquarium; the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier; antebellum plantations; and more than 70 pre-Revolutionary War buildings. Sightseeing options range from carriage rides to river cruises.
The destination’s largest group facility, the Charleston Area Convention Center Complex, is located in North Charleston about seven miles from historic downtown and only two miles from Charleston International Airport.
Connected to a 255-room Embassy Suites, the facility has 160,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, plus a 2,300-seat performing arts center and a 14,000-seat coliseum. More than 1,200 hotel rooms are within two blocks of the center, the newest of which is the 142-room Holiday Inn Charleston Airport and Convention Center.
Starwood Hotels plans to open one of the first of its new aloft brand hotels, the 140-room aloft Charleston Airport, on a site close to the convention center in 2008.
Across from the convention center, construction is under way on the 1.1 million-square-foot Centre Pointe commercial and retail complex. The project includes a 90-store Tanger Outlet Center, which opened last August at the complex.
“The outlet center has been a huge asset for the convention center,” Wallace says. “Six more restaurants are also opening in the area, and more hotel rooms are planned.”
Charleston boasts historic, meetings-ready properties, such as the Francis Marion Hotel, the AAA Five Diamond Wentworth Mansion and Orient Express Hotels’ Charleston Place.
At press time, the 215-room Mills House Hotel in downtown Charleston was scheduled to wrap up a $10 million restoration by Dec. 22. Upgrades to its 4,100 square feet of meeting space were completed in September. The renovation of the landmark InterContinental Hotels-managed property included gutting the guest rooms and implementing a new room design reflecting Charleston’s 19th century Asian ties, as well as restoring the hotel’s antiques and artwork.
Another favorite meetings property in the heart of the historic district is the Doubletree Guest Suites Historic Charleston.
The 340-room Charleston Riverview Hotel, with 17,000 square feet of meeting space a mile from the historic district, is also undergoing a renovation. Improvements to guest rooms have already been completed, and when the entire project is finished, the property will be rebranded the Marriott Charleston.
The 129-room Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina recently cut its ties with Hilton and dropped the Hilton flag. The property has 4,000 square feet of meeting space.
Meanwhile, Charles Towne Landing, located north of the city, reopened last August following a year-long development. The 665-acre attraction on the 1670 site of the Carolinas’ first permanent English settlement features a new visitor center, interpretative trail, replica of a 17th century sailing ship, and zoo habitats.
Charleston’s neighboring islands also provide group-friendly options.
The 255-room Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, with 18,000 square feet of meeting space, opened in August 2004 and received its first AAA Five Diamond rating for 2007. The island also has an additional 19,000 square feet of function space, five golf courses and 600 villas.
Seabrook Island, a 2,200-acre community, offers a variety of accommodations, an equestrian center, two championship courses, and 12,000 square feet of function space.
Just 20 minutes from Charleston is Destination Hotels and Resorts’ 1,600-acre Wild Dunes Resort on the Isle of Palms, which recently unveiled the Sweetgrass Pavilion, a 10,000-square-foot executive conference center. The resort, featuring two Tom Fazio-designed golf courses, two miles of beach, the 93-room Boardwalk Inn, and 350 villa units, can handle groups of up to 800 people.
Hilton Head Island
Anchoring the Palmetto State’s Low Country and resort islands region 90 miles south of Charleston, Hilton Head boasts more than 20 golf courses with a similar number close by on the mainland.
With 12 miles of beaches and 3,000 hotel rooms augmented by 6,000 condo vacation villas, the barrier island attracts 2.5 million visitors a year. Twenty properties have meeting facilities.
The island celebrated its 50th anniversary as a destination last summer. Sea Pines Resort, its first resort, which set the tone for its preservation and master-planned development, turned a half-century old.
A study undertaken for the Hilton Head–Bluffton Visitors and Convention Bureau found that consumers view the destination as relaxing and peaceful, but it also revealed that some meeting planners still think of it only as a world-class golf destination.
The bureau is unveiling a new branding campaign this month.
“Hopefully, it will bring us back to the forefront and raise us up,” says Jack Reed, the bureau’s director of sales, adding that Hilton Head offers much more than golf. “We have deep-sea fishing, dolphin and dinner cruises, and nature tours, and for spouse programs, Savannah [Ga.] is an hour away.”
The largest meetings hotels are the 512-room Marriott Hilton Head Beach and Golf Resort, offering 43,000 square feet of space, and the 412-room Westin Resort Hilton Head, with 28,000 square feet of function space. Crowne Plaza Resort, Hilton Oceanfront Resort and Sea Pines Resort each have approximately 20,000 square feet of meeting space.
Full-service spas will open at both the Westin and the Marriott this spring. The Westin’s facility will be the first Heavenly Spa in the continental U.S.
Daufuskie Island Resort, accessible via ferry from Hilton Head, features 190 guest rooms, 21,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa, an equestrian center, and 36 holes of golf.
NORTH CAROLINA
Outer Banks
Stretching for 130 miles off the coast, the Outer Banks is noted for historic attractions such as Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, where the “Lost Colony” settled in 1585, and the site of the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903.
The southern half of the ribbon of islands forms the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
With 3,100 hotel rooms and another 12,000 vacation units, in addition to five 18-hole golf courses, the region attracts 5 million visitors per year.
“We get lots of small board retreats, smaller associations, and pharmaceutical and sales groups,” says Lorrie Love, group tourism sales manager for the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau. “We can handle groups of up 400 people.”
Concentrated within about five miles of beachfront at Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head are the destination’s four meetings hotels, and nearby on Roanoke Island is the town of Manteo and attractions such as the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island, Roanoke Island Festival Park and the Lost Colony Outdoor Drama.
The destination’s function space was boosted in June with the opening of the first full-service hotel to be built in two decades: the 180-room Hilton Garden Inn Outer Banks/Kitty Hawk, which has a 4,080-square-foot ballroom.
“Hopefully, it will raise the bar on standards,” Love says.
Others meetings-ready hotels include the Ramada Plaza, the Clarion Oceanfront and the Comfort Inn South.
To the north at Duck, a meetings standout is the IACC-certified, 88-room Sanderling Resort, Spa and Conference Center, which can accommodate groups of 200 people and completed a $4 million room renovation last May.
Crystal Coast
The Crystal Coast, also called the Southern Outer Banks, encompasses resort communities along a 30-mile stretch of Bogue Banks islands, plus the pristine Cape Lookout National Seashore and the mainland towns of Beaufort and Morehead City.
The largest meetings hotel in the destination, which has a total of more than 10,000 hotel rooms and vacation accommodations, is the 200-room Sheraton Atlantic Beach Oceanfront Hotel, with more than 9,000 square feet of meeting space. Located four miles from Morehead City, the property completed a $2.4 million room renovation last July, which followed $4 million in upgrades to meeting space and other areas of the hotel.
For larger gatherings, the Morehead City Civic Center has 20,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space.
New Bern and Craven County
New Bern, North Carolina’s second-oldest settlement, dates to 1710 and is located at the confluence of the Trent and Neuse rivers.
With trolley tours and river cruises, its best known attraction is Tryon Palace, which was built in 1770 for the royal governor and later became the state’s first capitol.
The 45,000-square-foot New Bern Riverfront Convention Center in the downtown historic district features a 12,000-square-foot ballroom.
Within walking distance of the center are 500 hotel rooms at properties such as the 171-room Sheraton New Bern Hotel and Marina, which has 11,000 square feet of meeting space and is the largest of the city’s nine hotels.
Wilmington and the Cape Fear Coast
The Cape Fear Coast is home to Wilmington, which features a port and an international airport, as well as the 30 miles of shoreline that encompass Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Wrightsville Beach.
“We offer groups more than 200 shops, restaurants and attractions within walking distance in Wilmington’s 230-block historic district, and barrier islands with three oceanfront meetings properties,” says Kim Hufham, president and CEO of the Cape Fear Coast CVB.
Design plans are progressing for a city-owned, 120,000-square-foot riverfront convention center, which Hufham says will help the city compete with coastal South Carolina for larger conventions. Expected to open in early 2010, the complex will include an exhibit hall, a ballroom, breakout rooms, and a 270-room Marriott property.
The nearby 53-room Best Western Coastline Inn is also planning a 130-room tower expansion and the addition of up to 8,000 square feet of meeting space.
Next to the Best Western, the Coastline Convention Center provides more than 10,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space housed in a restored historic railroad warehouse that also has a railway museum.
Downtown’s largest meetings property, the 274-room Hilton Wilmington Riverside, has 20,000 square feet of function space.
The largest meetings property at the beach is the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort, with 10,000 square feet of meeting space. Located at Wrightsville Beach, the resort closed for renovations in October and is scheduled to reopen as the Holiday Inn Resort in mid-March. Renovations include upgrades to guest rooms, meeting facilities and restaurants.
Other top beach properties catering to groups include the Blockade Runner Beach Resort, with 7,200 square feet of meeting space, and Shell Island Resort, with 6,000 square feet of function space, both located at Wrightsville Beach, and a Courtyard by Marriott, featuring 3,300 square feet of meeting space, at Carolina Beach.
Farther south, Bald Head Island, accessible by ferry, has accommodations in rental homes and condos, a golf course and meeting space at six locations.
Midway between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, Sea Trail Golf Resort and Conference Center is a popular group choice, with 54 holes of championship golf and 70,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and an executive conference center.
For More Info
North Carolina
Cape Fear oast CVB 910.341.4030 www.cape-fear.nc.us
Craven County CVB 252.637.9400
www.visitnewbern.com
Crystal Coast Tourism Authority 252.726.8148
www.sunnync.com
Outer Banks Visitors Bureau 252.473.2138
www.outerbanks.org
South Carolina
Charleston Area CVB 843.853.8000
www.charlestoncvb.com
Hilton Head Island–Bluffton Visitor and Convention Bureau 843.785.3673
www.hiltonheadisland.org
Myrtle Beach Area CVB 843.448.1629
www.myrtlebeachinfo.com
