Being riverfront communities in Louisiana, Baton Rouge and Shreveport-Bossier City have a lot in common. They have the lure of gaming and festivities that include Mardi Gras, and they are known for their Cajun and Creole culture and cuisine.
But it doesn’t end there. They are also evolving, becoming elevated in the world of second- and third-tier meetings markets. Both are benefiting from rejuvenating downtown cores, new SMG-managed primary convention facilities, and even newer downtown Hiltons. New attractions and increasing airlift are also adding to their growing appeal.
Straddling the Red River, the twin cities of Shreveport and Bossier City are the hub of the Ark-La-Tex region, where Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas meet.
Baton Rouge is the heart of Louisiana’s Plantation Country. More than 20 historical plantations, some with meeting and event space and all open to the public, follow the Mississippi River north to Natchez across the state line and southeast along the Great River Road that leads to New Orleans, 80 miles away.
Baton Rouge
The area dubbed “Red Stick” (Baton Rouge in French) by the explorer Sieur d’Iberville in 1699 has been ruled under six flags. Louisiana’s capital, and home to Louisiana State University (LSU) and Southern University, now flies under the tag, “Authentic Louisiana at Every Turn.”
“We provide a unique Louisiana experience with diversity, history and outstanding attractions,” says Paul Arrigo, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area CVB. “And we’ve become more of a national and regional destination.”
As examples, he cites two national conventions held in May at the Baton Rouge River Center: the high-profile annual National Conference of Black Mayors, drawing 2,000 delegates and presidential candidates for the 2008 election, and Neighborhood USA, a neighborhood organization association conference attracting 650 people.
The Baton Rouge River Center, the city’s primary convention venue, expanded in 2004, almost doubling the size of the performing arts and theater facility then called the Centroplex.
Its 200,000 square feet of new and renovated space includes a 70,000-square-foot exhibit hall that can be combined to produce 100,000 square feet of contiguous space.
A few blocks away, the former Heidelberg and Capitol House hotels, closed since the early ’80s, became the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center in August 2006 following a $70 million restoration. The 293-room property features 18,000 square feet of meeting space.
Built in 1927, the Heidelberg had been the hangout of Huey Long, the notorious Louisiana governor and senator. The Hilton features a private dining room built in what was once a tunnel used by Long to reach his mistress at the King Hotel across Lafayette Street. Plans are under way to restore the King Hotel into a 90-room boutique property, with 2008 as the target opening date.
Adjacent to the Baton Rouge River Center is the 300-room Sheraton Baton Rouge Convention Center Hotel, with 12,000 square feet of function space, and the Belle of Baton Rouge casino, both owned by Columbia Sussex Corp.
Just upriver, across from the Louisiana State Capitol complex, is the city’s other gaming riverboat, the 1,000-slot Hollywood Casino. Formerly the Casino Rouge, it was renamed in February following the completion of an $8.5 million renovation and entertainment venue expansion.
In April, Pinnacle Entertainment filed to build a third riverboat casino that would include a 300-room hotel and an 18-hole golf course in the second phase.
The metro area has 9,000 hotel rooms in 40 hotels, and roughly 3,000 committable rooms are within walking distance or a short drive of the River Center.
In addition to the two downtown hotels—the Hilton and the Sheraton—major meetings-ready properties include the Holiday Inn Select, the Baton Rouge Marriott, the Cook Hotel and Conference Center at LSU, the Holiday Inn South, and the Embassy Suites.
Arrigo says business returned to normal about a year ago after a period of high hotel occupancy during New Orleans’ Katrina recovery.
“We’re now back to our traditional marketing. We have the space and we’re after groups of all sizes, from 25 people to 2,500,” he says.
Arrigo explains that following the River Center’s expansion in December 2004, 160,000 people attending the American Bowling Congress in 2005 significantly boosted business in town. (The group has booked again for 2012.) After Katrina, the center housed evacuees, reopening in December 2005. High hotel occupancies continued until mid-2006.
Meanwhile, meeting planners have plenty of choices for downtown off-site venues among the city’s many attractions.
Opened in March 2005, the $55 million Shaw Center for the Arts houses the LSU Museum of Art, with 17,000 square feet of exhibits and a 325-seat theater.
And the USS Kidd, a restored World War II destroyer, offers group tours and an auditorium that can seat 100.
The city’s newest museum is the 69,000-square-foot Louisiana State Museum–Baton Rouge, which opened in February 2006. Located across from the Louisiana State Capitol Gardens, it offers 10,000 square feet of rentable indoor and covered outdoor space.
Across from the new Hilton, the Old State Capitol, built in 1849 and now a museum, has legislative chambers available for functions, and the Old Governor’s Mansion, built by Long, also has function space. The grounds of both facilities were venues for the city’s first annual Southern Breeze Wine + Culinary Festival, held in June.
Corporate team-building programs using a space simulator are offered by the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, which has a planetarium and Challenger Learning Center.
A free trolley service, launched in late 2004, connects the Baton Rouge River Center/Old State Capitol section with the new 34-story Louisiana State Capitol to the north, built in 1932 and the site of Long’s assassination. The service includes Third Street, an area revitalized with new restaurants, bars and stores.
“We’re making for a better Baton Rouge experience,” Arrigo says. “It brings us to the next level in quality service offered to tourists and meeting and convention attendees.”
Last November, the CVB launched “Seein’ Red,” a program designed to educate frontline tourism employees about what the area has to offer. About 400 people have been through the program, which has now been opened to residents. (As Arrigo points out, many visitors stay with relatives.)
As part of “Seein’ Red,” new information kiosks were launched early this year at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, major hotels and other locations.
Additionally, a new downtown walking tour map listing 45 architecturally significant buildings was unveiled in May, and new directional signage will be installed downtown starting this fall.
Boosting accessibility, at press time Frontier Airlines was scheduled to begin Baton Rouge service Aug. 15 from its Denver hub, with two daily nonstop flights. It will be Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport’s fifth carrier, its first low-cost carrier and its first new airline service in more than 20 years.
Meanwhile, across the Interstate 10 bridge from the city is the community of West Baton Rouge, featuring eight hotels and the West Baton Rouge Tourist Information and Conference Center. The 4,500-square-foot conference facility includes a 250-seat banquet room, five breakout rooms, a business center, and teleconferencing capability.
West Baton Rouge also has a variety of attractions, including the West Baton Rouge Museum at Port Allen.
Shreveport-Bossier City
While Baton Rouge has Plantation Country, the twin cities of Shreveport and Bossier City provide the largest metro area in the northern region, promoted by the state as the “Sportsman’s Paradise” for its variety of hunting and fishing opportunities.
Settled in the 1830s and incorporated in 1871, Shreveport got an early boost as an oil industry center, and Bossier City celebrated its 100th anniversary in April.
The hurricanes of 2005 that disrupted casino business in south Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast boosted tourism in Shreveport-Bossier City, home to several riverboat casinos, and business returned to normal levels last year.
However, the hurricanes produced a more enduring legacy. The storms also disrupted filmmaking in south Louisiana, and much of the industry relocated to northwest Louisiana. Since the hurricanes, more than 20 movies and TV productions have been filmed in Shreveport-Bossier City. Movies include The Guardian, Homeland Security, Factory Girl, Premonition, Ruffian, A Year Without Santa, and Blonde Ambition.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson spoke in glowing terms about the area’s gaming and golf courses on the Late Show with David Letterman in February.
Mr. Brooks, a psychological thriller starring Kevin Costner, Demi Moore and William Hurt, was the first film produced at Stageworks of Louisiana. Launched in April 2006, Stageworks of Louisiana, the area’s third soundstage, is a conversion of Shreveport’s former L. Calhoun Allen Exposition Hall.
Among the destination’s biggest selling points are a diversity of attractions, warm hospitality and accessibility, according to Stacy Brown, president of the Shreveport-Bossier City Convention and Tourist Bureau.
“The biggest attraction is our casinos, but we are also a family destination,” Brown says. “We have great, friendly people, we’re very affordable, and we’re easy to get to and easy to get around.”
In June, the long-awaited Hilton Shreveport opened with 313 guest rooms and nearly 2,000 square feet of meeting space. It adjoins the 350,000-square-foot Shreveport Convention Center, which debuted in January 2006 and has a 100,000-square-foot, column-free exhibit hall, an 18,000-square-foot ballroom, and 10 meeting rooms.
“We’re now able to go after a whole new market, and the new Hilton is a tremendous asset,” Brown says. “We’ve had a nice mix of business ranging from local consumer shows to conventions and sports events.”
Groups that have met in Shreveport for the first time because of the new convention center include the Louisiana Math and Science Teachers Association, with 1,800 delegates, and the BWI Companies Expo, with 1,500 attendees.
Other large Shreveport meeting and event spaces are provided by the 7,839-seat Hirsch Memorial Coliseum; the 1,725-seat Shreveport Civic Theater; and the Shreveport Convention Hall, with 16,200 square feet of meeting and exhibit space.
Bossier City features the CenturyTel Center, with an arena and 30,000 square feet of column-free space, and the Bossier City Civic Center Complex, with 24,000 square feet of function space.
The new Hilton brings the number of downtown hotel rooms within walking distance of the Shreveport Convention Center to 1,000. The metro area has 8,500 hotel rooms, and the farthest hotel is 15 minutes from downtown.
All five riverboat casinos in the two cities come complete with hotels and meeting space.
Downtown Shreveport is home to the 514-room Sam’s Town Hotel and Casino, with 18,000 square feet of function space, and the 403-room Eldorado Resort Casino, with 6,300 square feet of function space. Both are within walking distance of the convention center.
The three casinos on the Bossier side are the 188-room Boomtown Casino Hotel, with 2,400 square feet of meeting space; the 600-room Horseshoe, with 3,800 square feet of meeting space; and the 570-room Diamond Jacks Casino Resort (formerly the Isle of Capri), with 20,000 square feet of function space.
Bossier City also has Harrah’s Louisiana Downs Casino and Racetrack, a thoroughbred track that can host banquets for up to 400 people. A Springhill Suites is under construction at the property.
Among the other meetings-ready hotels are the Clarion Hotel Shreveport, the Ramada Inn and Conference Center, the Holiday Inn Bossier City, and the Holiday Inn Downtown Riverfront.
Brown says that one new attraction—the Louisiana Boardwalk, which opened in 2005—“is now up there with the casinos in popularity.” Across the Texas Bridge on the Bossier side of the river and covering half a mile of riverfront, the boardwalk has more than 60 outlet stores and restaurants and is anchored by a Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World and a 14-screen cinema. A 125-room Courtyard by Marriott broke ground at the boardwalk in June.
On the Shreveport side, the Red River District provides an eclectic shopping and dining experience.
A top Shreveport attraction is the riverfront Sci-Port Discovery Center. With more than 200 hands-on science exhibits and a 175-seat IMAX theater, the science facility unveiled an $11.6 million, 25,000-square-foot Space Center with an interactive laser planetarium last November. What makes it unique among planetariums worldwide are interactive exhibits in which visitors can manipulate laser beam images on the dome. (One program allows them to see what the sky looked like at their birthplace on the date they were born.)
The discovery center has more than 10 function areas that can be used by groups, including the planetarium, which can accommodate up to 100 people and its 16 million-pixel laser system can be used for presentations.
Shreveport also boasts the nation’s largest rose garden: the American Rose Center, with 42 acres of roses and more than 4,000 square feet of meeting and function space.
The Ark-La-Texas Museum of Champions, which showcases local professional athletes, found a new home in May, when it moved into part of the lobby of the Shreveport Convention Center. Admission is free and the area is available for group functions.
The 30-plus off-site venue options in the destination also include the State Exhibit Museum, the Louisiana State Oil and Gas Museum, the Ark-La-Tex Antique and Classic Vehicle Museum, and the Ark-La-Tex Mardi Gras Museum.
Meanwhile, Shreveport Regional Airport, served by five carriers, has seen an increase in service. In April, American Eagle, which offers service between Shreveport and Dallas/Fort Worth, added a daily nonstop flight between Shreveport and O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Last November, Allegiant Air began Shreveport service with nonstop Orlando and Las Vegas flights.
For More Info
Baton Rouge Area CVB 225.383.1825
www.bracvb.com
Shreveport-Bossier City Convention & Tourist Bureau 318.222.9391
www.shreveport-bossier.org
West Baton Rouge CVB 225.344.2920
www.westbatonrouge.net
