Waterfront properties never go out of style but they do rise in price. And that’s no surprise to anyone who has researched rates and availability in some of the Southeast’s most popular sand-and-surf destinations.
Yet affordable sites in the category do exist in multiple locales, even in high season. Groups who want the views, beaches, good accessibility, balmy weather, and palatable prices do have options outside first-tier waterfront realms.
There are now even incentives for booking “hurricane alley” destinations during active storm seasons, traditionally a good value time of year.
Florida Alternatives
On Florida’s east coast there are several destinations just waiting to show groups their meetings mettle, including the Space Coast, a region that includes locations like Cocoa and Melbourne beaches. According to Rob Varley, executive director of the Space Coast Office of Tourism, the region offers the “closest beaches to Orlando” and savings over South Florida destinations that can be as much as 40 percent less.
Golf courses are plentiful, too, he says, and fascinating sites associated with the space industry provide group interest for both business and after-business program components. One of the most popular is the Shuttle Launch Experience, a new attraction that gives visitors the liftoff and ascent sensations of going into Earth’s orbit. The attraction’s payoff is a riveting view of Earth from space.
“Orlando International Airport is only 35 minutes from us,” Varley says, “and we are only a 50-minute drive from everything Disney offers there. A lot of our hotels are closer to the airport than Orlando hotels.”
Average winter temperatures are in the 70s, he adds, and major beachfront properties like Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, Doubletree Oceanfront Hotel and Radisson Resort at the Port combine with the Space Coast’s unique sites such as the Kurt H. Debus Conference Facility at the Kennedy Space Center to accommodate groups of up to 700 people.
Jacksonville was the October meetings choice for a group of about 200 people from the U.S. Department of Agriculture because of its affordability and great destination amenities, according to Lee Bowling, head of the training and career development office for National Agricultural Statistics Service in Washington, D.C.
“Jacksonville’s good weather, lower costs and ease of air access offered us a relaxed atmosphere so we could focus on our meeting,” he says. “Being the government, we have to compare everything based on cost. We looked at several places in and out of Florida, but Jacksonville was really competitive and attractive.”
He also notes that airfares into Jacksonville were very competitive, and so was the city’s per diem of $133 for room and meals as of last fall. The group gathered at the Omni Jacksonville Hotel, which is downtown on the St. Johns River, yet near beaches, parks and gardens.
John Reyes, president and CEO of VisitJacksonville, encourages planners with groups of around 400 people to consider his city for yet another significant reason.
“Planners get the value of being the major meetings group in town,” he says. “Groups get not only competitive rates and great beachfront facilities like our 900-room Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront, they also get treated like the big fish, with personalized attention. In the coming year, we intend to be more aggressive in marketing our value proposition.”
Jupiter Beach Resort & Spa in Jupiter Beach lies south on the Atlantic Ocean, only 20 minutes north of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. The 168-room resort’s ambience is more like a private club than a beach, says Diane D’Amico, director of sales and marketing, and it has a full-service spa, fine dining, social areas, ballrooms, and boardrooms.
“We are still on the ocean, but probably 10 to 20 percent less than key feeder cities south of us,” she says. “When planners who are shopping for Palm Beach realize we are so close and yet so much more affordable, they take notice. We are the perfect place for small to midsize groups of up to 75 people. Also, that size group doesn’t get lost in our resort, which has about 12,000 square feet of interior and exterior event space.”
As an added incentive, any group that books 20 room nights or more with Jupiter Beach Resort through April 30, 2008, will receive a complimentary GPS device.
For those with concerns about booking Florida during hurricane season, VisitFlorida (www.visitflorida.org) is offering Cover-Your-Event Insurance for event disruption by storms. The program is free to organizations that book meetings and events in the state during hurricane season. It will reimburse a business group in case of cancellation due to a named hurricane during August, September and October 2008.
Premiums on the insurance are no cost to the contracting organization. Limitations do exist, but it is one solution that bears consideration as a way to overcome objections to booking any state destination during storm season, when value rates are available.
’Bama Beaches
Beaches and golf are affordable draws along the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay shores. Not only do the region’s waterfront resorts offer good group values, so do the award-winning greens that comprise Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.
Kevin Hellmich, vice president of sales for the resort collection on the Trail, says greens fees range from $45 to $125, depending on location and season. “Individuals can play two or three rounds of golf in this area, rather than just one,” he says.
At Grand Hotel Marriott Point Clear Resort & Spa, for example, there are 36 holes and two private beaches on 550 acres fronting Mobile Bay.
“A lot of our clients are used to doing the Caribbean and Florida in the winter,” Hellmich says. “And some are pleasantly surprised to learn that Alabama is a much more affordable and pleasing choice. Groups can stretch their dollars, yet experience service levels and waterfront amenities that exceed those at a lot of Florida resorts. Some of our associates at the Grand have worked here for as long as 50 years, and our repeat meetings groups have a great deal of trust in them and our management team.”
Myrtle Beach
A satisfying experience near water doesn’t have to mean oceanfront, according to Phil Constantini, director of sales and marketing for Barefoot Resort & Golf in Myrtle Beach, S.C., a member of Premier Resorts.
“We are one of Myrtle Beach’s luxury resorts,” he says, “and our accommodations overlook our 142-slip marina and the Intracoastal Waterway. Some meeting planners think all of what Myrtle Beach has is on the ocean, then they come and stay here, and decide they prefer this. We’re like a private resort, much quieter and about 30 percent less in cost than Myrtle Beach’s oceanfront properties. Yet we’re only a mile from the surf via our beach shuttle.”
Barefoot’s average room rate in 2007 was $102, he adds, with an 1,800-square-foot suite going for $280 in high season. The resort’s high season is summer, a time when business groups bring their families to enjoy the coastal amenities.
The resort will be even better equipped for business groups when it opens the Lakeside Conference Center in June. The center will add 17,000 square feet of new meeting space to the property, which also offers 300 guest rooms and four on-site golf courses ranked by Golf Digest as among Myrtle Beach’s top 25 courses for 2007.
So when event specifications call for affordability along with water views, coastal ambience and mild weather, planners who take a wider view of Southeast destinations can fill objectives in a new and greater variety of destinations.
