Mention beach to most Texans, and they think of South Padre Island, part of the “Texas Riviera” that runs along the Gulf of Mexico in the southeastern part of the state and also includes hot spots like Corpus Christi. The shore isn’t only popular with people in search of a vacation, however, as business groups find plenty of well-equipped convention facilities and hotels, taking advantage of activities such as water sports, fishing and bird watching after meetings adjourn.
Inland from the coast are several meetings-ready communities along the U.S.-Mexico border that lend international flair to the agenda, including Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville, and many groups cross over into Mexico to enjoy meals, shopping and tours.
Corpus Christi
Meeting facilities along Corpus Christi Bay, like the 474-room Omni Bayfront Hotel and the 346-room Omni Marina Hotel, capture the tropical nature of this vibrant city that embraces the water, while giving groups a variety of gathering choices that are affordable and visually appealing.
Another top group selling point is convenient access, since getting there via several major airlines and moving around once in town are as easy as the breezes that caress the bay. The downtown Bayfront Connector trolley circuit and water taxi service provide easy connections to hotels, facilities and attractions, and almost everything is within 10 minutes of the next site.
“We are an affordable destination with lots to do,” says Ed Persall, vice president of sales for the Corpus Christi CVB. “Our larger conventions always set attendance records here because attendees know they can bring their families with them and combine a vacation with business.”
Among the many diversions attendees can take advantage of in Corpus Christi are the beaches at nearby Padre Island, museums and sporting events, including baseball at Whataburger Field.
Corpus Christi’s largest group facility is the multipurpose, 500,000-square-foot American Bank Center, located in the center of the sports, entertainment and arts district that overlooks the bay. A ballroom with bay views and 31 breakout rooms are among the features. Under the center’s roof are the 100,000-square-foot American Bank Center Convention Center, the 10,500-seat American Bank Center Arena and the 2,526-seat American Bank Center Selena Auditorium. Managers of the American Bank Center are fond of saying their facility can handle “a private party for 50 or a convention for 5,000.”
High on any visitor’s list of things to see and do in Corpus Christi is the Texas State Aquarium, where the new Hawn Wild Flight Theater recently opened. The 300-seat amphitheater features entertaining and informative birds of prey shows starring trained hawks, owls, falcons, and parrots.
Also new among the city’s attractions is a plumeria garden at South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center, as well as an expansion at the Art Museum of South Texas that doubled the facility’s size. The museum, a Corpus Christi landmark since 1972, features galleries with expansive views of Corpus Christi Bay.
The USS Lexington Museum on the Bay, home of the U.S. Navy’s most decorated aircraft carrier, is a visitor favorite, as is the maritime history on display at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History, where replicas of Christopher Columbus’ Pinta and Santa Maria are included among the exhibits.
The good news for business groups is that most of the city’s unique attractions are available as private event platforms.
Laredo
The community of Laredo, which sits just across the border from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, celebrates its culturally rich, two-nation appeal in its many annual festivals and attractions.
The destination is well known for its annual Miss Texas USA pageant, scheduled this year for July 1, as well as the 75-year annual sporting tradition known as the Border Olympics, held on the campus of Texas A&M International University. The event, which takes place from December to March, is a collegiate and high school competition for medals in a variety of sports.
Laredo is more than 250 years old, but it’s one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, with a population that has a median age of 26. The city is preparing for its future by adding new facilities and refurbishing its treasured old sites. Restored historic facilities mingle with contemporary venues to offer groups a well-equipped destination.
Laredo has 3,800 hotel rooms, including 10 new properties that have opened since 2005. The newcomers include the Rialto Hotel and properties by Embassy Suites, SpringHill Suites, Residence Inn, Homewood Suites, Best Western, and Staybridge Suites.
La Posada Hotel/Suites, a longtime icon in the city’s historic district, just completed a multimillion-dollar renovation to enhance its Spanish colonial ambience, and the Holiday Inn Laredo was also recently renovated.
The destination’s primary group venue is the Laredo Civic Center, a complex that includes a 24,500-square-foot banquet and exhibit hall and four meeting rooms. The center is near historic downtown Laredo, two international bridges to Mexico and Laredo International Airport.
Meanwhile, Laredo Entertainment Center is a 10,000-seat multipurpose arena that is home to the Central Hockey League championship team, the Laredo Bucks, and it is available for group events. Restaurants, hotels and clubs are popping up around the center, making it an attractive entertainment hub of the city for locals and visitors.
McAllen
Not only does McAllen have some of the South Texas region’s best airlift (into McAllen International Airport), it also has a brand-new convention center to offer meeting planners.
Ernie Arredondo, assistant director of sales for the McAllen CVB, says the March opening of the 175,000-square-foot, $60 million McAllen Convention Center has brought his city the largest single meetings facility in the Rio Grande Valley.
“We have a 70,000-square-foot, column-free exhibit hall in the new center that can be partitioned in two,” Arredondo says. “The new center also has 16 breakout rooms and a 10,000-square-foot ballroom. Several new restaurants and other businesses are opening around it. There’s nothing else like this south of San Antonio.”
New hotels within walking distance of the center are coming on-line in the next year, according to Arredondo, including properties by La Quinta, Homewood Suites and SpringHill Suites. The new hotels will augment the city’s existing room inventory, which includes the 262-room Embassy Suites McAllen; the 165-room Renaissance Casa de Palmas Hotel; and the 193-room Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites McAllen.
Further boosting the destination’s profile among groups are nonstop flights on Delta, Southwest, Continental, and American that now connect McAllen with Los Angeles, Mexico City, Atlanta, and major Texas cities.
McAllen’s meetings package includes more than just new facilities, affordability and attractive air accessibility. McAllen also boasts the balmy year-round coastal climate that is typical of the region and proximity to the vibrant Mexican culture in neighboring Reynosa, Mexico, as well as Monterrey, Mexico, which is about two hours by car from McAllen.
“We are now ready to host groups of up to 3,000 people,” Arredondo says. “In the past, it was mostly state associations and government meetings that came to us. Now with the new convention center and great air access, we expect to bring in larger groups, like SMERF groups and others.”
Harlingen
Like many South Texas destinations, Harlingen is popular with “Winter Texans”—folks in search of warmer climes in the colder months. What makes the city so popular is its laid-back Rio Grande Valley culture, Mexican borderside location and welcoming hospitality.
Harlingen is also close to the beaches and tropical breezes of the Gulf of Mexico and wildlife preserves, and it has an historic district that visitors can stroll or explore via old-style trolleys.
Cheryl LaBerge, Harlingen’s downtown manager, says Harlingen has the same Tex-Mex appeal of larger destinations, minus some of the negatives.
“We have the authentic Mexican culture, food, music, and flavor at more reasonable prices and without the crowds,” LaBerge says. “Plus, we have a great ‘tropical playground-of-Texas’ atmosphere. The weather is warm even in winter, and palm trees and the beach are close by.”
The Regional Academic Health Center Educational Facility, a branch of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, is the city’s newest meeting facility. The 94,000-square-foot complex houses a medical library offering a full array of medical journals and texts, as well as computer access to on-line medical resources. The educational building contains an auditorium, multiple classrooms and a video teleconferencing center.
South Padre Island
For groups with both business and beach time on their minds, it’s hard to beat South Padre Island. Tropical Gulf breezes and pristine white-sand beaches define the destination.
The developed portion of South Padre Island (about five miles long) has hotel, motel and condo guest units, and most of them overlook the surf. The remainder of the island is composed of sand dunes, nature trails and water bird preserves with a languid climate that’s tempered by Gulf waters.
South Padre has some of the last ecologically significant and unspoiled beaches and dunes along the Gulf of Mexico, and its wetlands are the habitat for plants, animals and various species of waterfowl, such as loons, pelicans, ducks, cranes, and spoonbills. In fact, more than 300 species of birds live around the island. In winter, large flocks of northern pintails and redhead ducks feed in the warm shallow waters of the Laguna Madre.
Though “tranquility” is the main business on South Padre, there are plenty of facilities and services to serve the meeting client in search of productivity, at least part of the time.
“We are the premier beach destination in the state,” says Connie Ledbetter, deputy director of the South Padre Island CVB. “Our convention center overlooks the Laguna Madre Bay and stands next to nature trails that invite meeting attendees to break from business in nature. Our climate is almost always at the perfect 75 degrees, even in winter.”
The South Padre Convention Centre by the bay features 45,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space, as well as a colorful exterior that’s decorated with murals identifying it as a Texas landmark. Local resorts, such as the Sheraton South Padre Island, Bahia Mar Resort and Conference Center, Radisson Resort South Padre Island, and Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort South Padre Island, all offer generous footage in their meetings-dedicated spaces.
When business is done, the main agenda here is relaxation, and visitors find South Padre can consume their stress through a good variety of recreational pursuits like fishing, horseback riding on the beach and golfing.
Another facet of South Padre’s appeal is its proximity to Mexico. In just a 30-minute drive, visitors can be in the vibrant town of Matamoros. Thus, one may enjoy an afternoon siesta in the U.S. and a night of dining and fun in Mexico.
Brownsville
When you’re in Brownsville, you are really getting down to Texas’ tip, and right next to Matamoros, Mexico. Because the two cities are separated only by the Rio Grande River, most visitors cross over for some international flavor in local restaurants and shops.
“Groups that come to Brownsville get two countries for one,” says Mike Gonzalez, president and CEO of the Brownsville CVB. “It’s possible to lunch in Brownsville, then cross the border for an exciting dinner evening.”
Nearby Gulf beaches and a semi-tropical climate add to the area’s cache, which attracts both leisure and business visitors.
The city typically hosts smaller conferences of 300 to 400 people, according to Gonzalez, many of them state associations and government groups.
Brownsville has 2,500 guest rooms in various meetings-friendly hotels, including the Holiday Inn Brownsville, featuring a 5,800-square-foot ballroom and two boardrooms.
Business groups also use facilities such as the Brownsville Event Center, with its 15,500-square-foot ballroom and landscaped waterfront grounds, and the Jacob Brown Memorial Center, where an auditorium seats up to 1,593 people.
Leisure time options abound in Brownsville. The 17,000-square-foot Brownsville Museum of Fine Art opened last October in the Mitte Cultural District as the only repository of fine art in South Texas. It is adjacent to the Gladys Porter Zoo, an attraction that lures 50,000 visitors annually to its 26 acres of tropical plants and exhibits of 1,500 animals.
The Brownsville Heritage complex depicts the city’s evolution from discovery and exploration through the first half of the 20th century. Those who take walking tours of the area learn about Brownsville’s colorful past—its days as a fort, the arrival of French nuns to teach the locals and the ranching era. The museum is located in the old Southern Pacific Railroad Depot, and there’s an array of artifacts and visuals from the battles fought during the Mexican-American War.
The Brownsville Golf Center has two 18-hole courses, while there are additional 18-hole links at Valley International Country Club, Fort Brown Memorial Golf Center and River Bend Country Club.
Bird watching draws visitors from all over the world to South Texas, and Brownsville hosts the annual Brownsville International Birding & Nature Festival in February, which offers a program of field trips, seminars and other events focusing on the biodiversity of South Texas and Northern Mexico.
For More Info
Brownsville CVB 956.546.3721
www.brownsville.org
Corpus Christi CVB 361.881.1888
www.corpuschristicvb.com
Harlingen Area COC 956.795.2200
www.harlingen.com
Laredo CVB 404.521.6600
www.visitlaredo.com
McAllen CVB 956.682.2871
www.mcallencvb.com
South Padre Island CVB 956.761.3005
www.sopadre.com
