The Show-Me State has much to show off—and it is getting the chance. Missouri’s two largest cities, St. Louis and Kansas City, are abuzz with newly minted entertainment hubs that are now in full swing steps from their convention centers and part of downtown resurgence efforts. In addition, the garnering of prestigious sporting events guarantees added exposure to celebrating crowds this year.
New hotels and attractions continue to open throughout the state, while low-cost air service to new airport facilities in the Ozark playgrounds of southwest Missouri is a testament to the state’s growing appeal.
St. Louis Area
It might not be 1904—when St. Louis hosted the World’s Fair and the Olympics—but the city is just as ready to put itself in the international spotlight and flaunt its $4 billion city makeover.
Meeting planners will descend on Missouri’s second-largest city and largest metro area in 2011 for ASAE’s annual convention and in 2012 for MPI’s World Education Congress.
Exposure comes big time July 14 when “Gateway City” hosts, for the first time since 1966, Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, which will take place at the St. Louis Cardinals’ 3-year-old Busch Stadium, a few blocks south of the America’s Center convention complex. In April, the city hosted the NCAA Women’s Final Four basketball tournament.
With 500,000 square feet of exhibit space, downtown’s America’s Center includes an IACC-certified conference center and the Edward Jones Dome, home of the St. Louis Rams, where a major upgrade will be completed in time for the football season. More than 7,600 hotel rooms are within one mile of the center.
Just outside the area, the Washington Avenue district has revitalized. Once the center of shoe and garment industries, it is now a trendy loft district where historic buildings have come to life with apartments, restaurants and nightlife.
Big changes have recently taken shape at Laclede’s Landing, where Pinnacle Entertainment unveiled its $500 million Lumiere Place early last year. Connected to America’s Center by walkways, Lumiere Place consists of a 2,000-slot casino, the new 200-room Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis and the 294-room HoteLumiere—a $16 million transformation of the former Embassy Suites.
“We’re in a great position in these economic times. We have a gorgeous downtown. We’re affordable with hotels at all price points, and have many world-class attractions with free admission,” says Donna Andrews, spokesperson for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC), noting the city’s zoo and its art, science and history museums at Forest Park are all free to the public.
Last year, the CVC booked a record 554,031 future meeting and convention room nights, up nearly 30,000 from 2007. Of the country’s top 25 metro areas, for the first three months of this year Smith Travel Research figures show St. Louis fared better than almost all others, with a RevPAR decline of just 9.5 percent compared with an average drop of 19.8 percent, plus it had the second-lowest average daily rate: $80.57.
The city has seen rebrandings. Across from the Gateway Arch, the 910-room Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront (the former Adam’s Mark) will complete a $63 million renovation in July. Work includes meeting space renovations and the addition of two meeting rooms totaling 4,500 square feet, bringing the total square footage of function space at the property to 83,000.
The 539-room Hyatt Regency St. Louis at Union Station, with 35,000 square feet of meeting space, changed flags in December, becoming the St. Louis Union Station Marriott, and a $20 million upgrade is under way.
Among the new hotels outside downtown with meeting space are the 135-room boutique Moonrise Hotel, which opened in April in the Loop Arts and Entertainment district, and Hotel Indigo St. Louis-Central West End, which will debut by early July.
At Collinsville, Ill., 11 miles from downtown St. Louis, the 236-room Doubletree Hotel Collinsville/St. Louis, a former Holiday Inn, completed a $12 million renovation in March. With 7,500 square feet of meeting space, it is adjacent to the Gateway Convention Center, which has 50,000 square feet of available space.
With a proposed early 2010 opening, Starwood plans to start construction early next year on a 245-room Westin with 16,500 square feet of meeting space in Clayton, a western suburb.
Saint Charles, a suburb 20 miles northwest of downtown St. Louis, is home to the 4-year-old, 154,000-square-foot Saint Charles Convention Center, with an attached 296-unit Embassy Suites and more than 500 hotel rooms within walking distance. Nearby are Historic Main Street and the Ameristar Casino, which added a 400-room hotel and a 55,000-square-foot conference center in 2007.
St. Louis and its surrounding area also boast all of Missouri’s five IACC-certified conference centers. In addition to the St. Louis Executive Conference Center at America’s Center, Washington University features the Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center and the Eric P. Newman Education Center. The others are the 500-room Westport Conference Center and the Doubletree Hotel & Conference Center in Chesterfield.
Among the other meetings-friendly hotels in the areas surrounding St. Louis are the Sheraton Westport Plaza Hotel, the Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel St. Louis, the Renaissance St. Louis Hotel Airport, the St. Louis Airport Marriott, the Hilton St. Louis Airport, the Sheraton Clayton Plaza Hotel St. Louis and Harrah’s St. Louis.
Kansas City and Environs
SmarterTravel.com named Kansas City one of five international Destinations to Watch in 2009 (the only one in the U.S.), declaring that Missouri’s largest city has been working hard to make itself a destination worth the trip—and the effort is paying off.
More than $5 billion has been spent on downtown rejuvenation in the city, which is part of a metro area that also encompasses Kansas City, Kan., and Overland Park, Kan.
In 2007, the city completed the $150 million renovation and expansion of the Kansas City Convention Center, which offers 388,800 square feet of column-free exhibit space and meeting venues such as a 46,000-square-foot ballroom. The year was topped with the debut of the multipurpose $276 million, 18,500-seat Sprint Center.
Between the two centers rose the new $850 million Power & Light District, an eight-block, 24-hour entertainment district. Openings began in late 2007. It now has more than 40 restaurants, nightclubs and entertainment venues. Final tenants rushed to open in time for a big March basketball event of three collegiate associations, with 56 teams competing in 75 tournaments in 11 days.
Also in March, the city hosted 600 attendees for Experient’s annual conference; more than one-third of the delegates were third-party planners.
“We have major sports and major arts, and there’s lots of renewed interest because of Power & Light,” says Denise DeJulio, executive director of convention sales at the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association (CVA). “Downtown is so vibrant, the convention center looks fabulous, and hotels have renovated.”
Last year the CVA generated 438,521 future room nights, up 31 percent over those booked in 2007, including 332,483 for the convention center, an increase of 80 percent.
According to DeJulio, new projects have brought popular off-site options such as the KC Live Block at Power & Light and the College Basketball Experience at the College Basketball Coach Hall of Fame by Sprint Center. In addition, the town’s Crossroads area, centered on Main and Grant, has blossomed with art galleries, art walks and nightlife.
The city’s major meetings hotels include Kansas City Marriott Downtown, adjacent to the convention center, Westin Crown Center and Hyatt Regency Crown Center. Another top choice for groups is the recently renovated Hilton President Kansas City, located directly across the street from the new H&R Block World Headquarters. Crowne Plaza Kansas City Downtown, formerly a Radisson, is another meetings hotel that recently completed a renovation.
Just south of the convention center, the $400 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, opening in 2011, will be home to symphony, opera and other arts organizations.
And Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, reopened for the season in April sporting a $250 million renovation and expansion.
Another new attraction will be unveiled this summer: the first Schlitterbahn Waterpark outside Texas. It will be the first phase of Schlitterbahn Vacation Village, with lodging, retail and restaurants expected to open in phases through 2011.
East of the city in the town of Independence, the new $52 million, 5,800-seat Independence Events Center will debut this fall with a minor-league hockey team as its primary tenant.
An hour north of the city is St. Joseph, named the No. 1 True Western Town of 2008 by True West magazine. Here, in the city where the Pony Express began and where Jesse James was killed, there are 13 museums and more than 50 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Central Missouri
Missouri’s capital since 1821, Jefferson City on the Missouri River has a population of around 40,000 and a downtown skyline dominated by the capitol dome.
“Set your clock back when you come here,” says Marianne Thies, sales manager at the Jefferson City CVB. “It’s very nostalgic. Streets look like streets of the 1960s. No one’s in hurry, everything is close by. We get lots of government groups and state associations, and groups coming to the legislature.”
Last year, the CVB launched its first walking tour map, which depicts 35 points of interest, including buildings dating to the city’s founding. Its newest attraction, which opened for tours in early May, is downtown’s Missouri State Penitentiary, featuring cells dating to 1836 and a gas chamber that saw 40 executions. It was replaced in 2004 by a new facility.
The major downtown meetings facility, the 255-room Capitol Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, with 22,000 square feet of meeting space and a capacity for 1,200 for banquets, is within walking distance of the Missouri State Capitol, Missouri State Museum and Amtrak station.
Across from city hall, the former 151-room Hotel La Bella became the Doubletree Hotel Jefferson City in May 2008 following a makeover that included a new 3,800-square-foot ballroom, which nearly doubled the hotel’s meeting space.
South of town, the 232-room Truman Hotel and Conference Center has 24,000 square feet of function space, and a handful of other hotels have meeting facilities.
Thirty minutes north of the capital is Columbia, with a downtown surrounded by colleges, the University of Missouri to the south, Columbia College to the north and Stephens College to the east.
Earlier this year, Forbes named it No. 5 on its list of the Best Small Places in the U.S. for Business and Careers.
“We are a mix of arts and culture with lots of attractions, nightlife and live music,” says Beth Mead, the Columbia CVB’s tourism marketing manager. “Our major industry is health care—we have five hospitals. State associations like us because of our central location.”
With more than 30 hotels—two-thirds with meeting facilities—and 3,500 rooms, the city’s primary meetings complex is the 311-room Holiday Inn Executive Center-Columbia Mall, with 15,340 square feet of meeting space, and its adjacent Columbia Expo Center, with 18,000 square feet of exhibit space.
Columbia’s newest meetings hotel, the 133-room Hampton Inn & Suites at the University of Missouri, has 5,000 square feet of meeting space. Among the town’s others meetings-ready properties are the Hilton Garden Inn, Days Inn Conference Center and Stoney Creek Inn & Conference Center.
Boone County Fairgrounds, the University of Missouri’s 14,000-seat Mizzou Arena and the Midway Expo Center provide additional options for large gatherings.
South of Columbia and Jefferson City, Lake of the Ozarks attracts 4.5 million visitors per year.
This destination has 1,500 miles of shoreline, covers more than 54,000 acres and is home to towns such as Osage Beach, Lake Ozark, Lake West, Versailles, Eldon and Camdenton.
It boasts 350,000 square feet of meeting space, 261 holes of golf, four family fun parks, seven go-kart tracks and more than 100 restaurants. More than 200 properties provide 6,700 hotel guest rooms and lodging units.
“Meeting planners are surprised by the variety of things to do,” says Frank Shock, marketing director at Lake of the Ozarks CVB. “We attract state association and corporate groups. We have excellent boating and shopping and lots of golf, and Missouri’s largest state park and largest factory outlet mall.”
The newest resort, the Resort and Yacht Club at Toad Cove, opened last summer adjacent to the Horny Toad entertainment complex, with 116 suites, a marina and 9,000 square feet of meeting space.
Other major meetings properties include the 850-room Tan-Tar-A-Resort; the 350-room Lodge of Four Seasons; the 96-room Country Club Hotel & Spa; the 200-room Old Kinderhook Resort; the 207-room Resort at Port Arrowhead; and the 159-room Inn at Grand Glaize.
Southwest Missouri
An Ozarks mecca attracting 8 million visitors per year with 53 theaters and more than 100 live shows occurring at any one time, Branson got a boost when it unveiled its new convention center. Its appeal has been enhanced again with the debut of an airport.
The 220,000-square-foot Branson Convention Center opened in fall 2007 with the adjoining 293-room Hilton Branson, located across the street from the new Branson Landing. The landing is a $420 million, 95-acre lakefront development with condos, marinas, shopping, nightlife and another Hilton, the 242-room Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing.
“The convention center really opened the floodgates for us,” says Vienna Bowling, director of meeting and convention sales at the Branson Lakes Area COC and CVB.
Bowling says the city now handles a wide range of groups of up to 6,000 people. Previously, the largest groups were 2,000 to 3,000 people.
“The two most frequent comments we get from meeting planners on FAM tours are that they are amazed at the high quality of our entertainment and the high quality of our hotels,” she says. “The neat thing is we now have such variety with the landing and the historic downtown next to it, all with carriage and trolley rides.”
Branson has theme parks, a dozen golf courses and 19,000 rooms in more than 200 lodging properties. The largest meetings hotel, the 301-room Chateau on the Lake Resort & Spa, has 43,500 square feet of meeting space. Among the other options are the Big Cedar Lodge and the Stone-
bridge Resort, both of which expanded conference facilities last year.
The new $155 million Branson Airport, the country’s first privately developed and operated commercial airport, opened May 11 eight miles from the city. The airport is served by two carriers: Sun Country Airlines, with nonstop service from Minneapolis-St. Paul, and AirTran Airways, with nonstop flights from Atlanta and Milwaukee. Additional airlines are expected to serve the airport.
“This is really big for us,” Bowling says, noting that the airport is focusing on attracting low-cost carriers that do not compete with the nearest airport, 40 miles to the north in Springfield, which has a new terminal.
Springfield-Branson National Airport opened its new $117 million terminal May 6, when it also added its first West Coast service on Allegiant Air, offering nonstop flights from Los Angeles. The 10-gate, 275,000-square-foot terminal replaces a 175,000-square-foot facility.
Springfield, Missouri’s third-largest city, has more than 6,000 hotel rooms and can handle groups of 12,000, according to the Springfield CVB.
“We attract all types of groups, including associations and religious groups,” says Laura Whisler, marketing director for the CVB. “We’re easily accessible. There’s a lot to do downtown. We have a very active nightlife and a first-Friday art walk.”
She points out that the city has the original and largest Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, a popular attraction, and Fantastic Caverns, the country’s only “ride-through” cave tour. Adjacent to Bass is the Wonders of Wildlife, which has more than 200 animals species and will reopen in summer 2010 following a renovation and expansion.
The Springfield Exposition Center, with 112,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, is located across the street from the University Plaza Hotel and a block from shopping, nightlife, more than 50 restaurants and entertainment venues such as the Springfield Little Theater and the Gillioz Theater. Also within walking distance is Hammons Field, home of the Springfield Cardinals AA baseball team.
Missouri State University unveiled the $67 million, 11,000-seat JQH Arena last fall, and Drury University is expected to break ground shortly on the 3,600-seat O’Reilly Event Center, a new multipurpose basketball facility slated for a fall 2010 completion.
Two top meetings hotels are under new flags: the 201-room Doubletree Hotel Springfield, the former Hawthorn Park Hotel, which was rebranded in April last year following a $9 million renovation that included its 10,000 square feet of meeting space, and the 170-room Oasis Hotel & Convention Center, which has 31,000 square feet of meeting space and became the Ramada Oasis Convention Center early this year following a renovation.
Joplin, a regional hub with a population of 50,000 and 2,500 hotel rooms, sits close to the Kansas and Oklahoma state lines.
The Holiday Inn Joplin features more than 42,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 6,400-square-foot ballroom and the 30,000-square-foot John Q. Hammons Convention and Trade Center.
The Joplin Memorial Hall has a 7,000-square-foot main floor and seating for more than 2,500, and there is a La Quinta Inn featuring 4,000 square feet of meeting space.
City attractions include a zoo, a conservation and wildlife center, a waterpark and a museum complex that tells the story of Joplin’s early mining days, historic Route 66, and Bonnie and Clyde’s adventures in the city.
Ten miles from the city, the $301 million, 222-room Downstream Casino Resort opened last July. Its unique location gives it an entrance in Missouri, a parking lot in Kansas and a 2,000-slot casino in Oklahoma. It features a six-room conference center, the largest holding 200 people, plus a 6,200-seat outdoor concert venue and 36 holes of golf.
For More Info
Branson/Lakes Area COC and CVB 417.334.4136 www.meetinbranson.net
Columbia CVB 573.875.1231 www.visitcolumbiamo.com
Jefferson City CVB 573.632.2820 www.visitjeffersoncity.com
Joplin CVB 417.625.4789 www.visitjoplinmo.com
Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association 816.221.5242 www.visitkc.com
Lake of the Ozarks CVB 573.348.1599 www.funlake.com
Missouri Association of CVBs 816.233.6688 www.macvb.com
Overland Park CVB 913.491.0123 www.opcvb.org
Springfield CVB 417.881.5300 www.springfieldadventures.com
St. Joseph CVB 816.233.6688 www.stjomo.com
St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission 314.421.1023 www.explorestlouis.com
