All eyes were on Central West Florida last August as the Republican National Convention took center stage inside a brilliantly renovated venue on the banks of the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa.
In a matter of days it was all over, but the upgrades that were poured into the region in anticipation of the massive event—not to mention the publicity generated for the destination—will have a positive impact on group business going forward, tourism officials hope.
Tampa
After taking on the Republican National Convention last summer, Tampa is ready to take on the world. Citywide improvements have left the downtown convention hub more high-tech and high-profile, and after seeing group numbers ascend for 2012, the RNC was “the icing on the cake,” says Alex Kaptzan, vice president of convention sales and services for Tampa Bay & Company.
“We finished at 109 percent of our pace target, so it was a fabulous year for the city, not only from a business perspective, but in the investments into the destination from hosting the RNC—city beautification projects, hotel renovations, airport improvements,” Kaptzan says. “The city’s looking better than it ever has.”
One of those investments took place at the RNC host site, the Tampa Bay Forum, as well as the Tampa Convention Center and nine area hotels, all now about as connected as you can get thanks to 11 in-building cell systems installed by AT&T. Beyond that, the entire city of Tampa got a major communications boost with AT&T’s citywide installation of 4G LTE.
“We were one of the first cities in the country to receive it,” says Liana Lopez, Tampa Bay & Company’s director of communications. “Miles and miles of fiber optic cable were put in to connect the Forum and Convention Center, so attendees can use whatever [cell phone] service they have.”
While groups stay connected inside, a beautiful new Riverwalk connecting downtown venues nears completion outside. Winding past all the waterfront meeting facilities, attractions and hotels—including the Times Forum and Convention Center, the Florida Aquarium, the Marriott Waterside and Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park (home of the Tampa Museum of Art)—the two-mile promenade has received funding to complete the final leg, Lopez says.PageBreak
Also under development are four new hotels, all in downtown Tampa and three a part of the Riverwalk convention hub: a 130-room Aloft property featuring a 4,000-square-foot rooftop event space; a 350-room hotel planned by Trammel Crow near the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, itself a premier meetings/training destination; and a third Riverwalk property still in the planning stages. Just inland, downtown Tampa’s retired federal courthouse, a 106-year-old Beaux Arts-style building, will undergo a $25 million renovation and emerge as a Le Meridien by 2014.
Away from the Riverwalk area, in South Tampa’s trendy Hyde Park historic district, another new property is also coming to the table: the Epicurean, a 137-room boutique hotel that will be a joint effort between the Autograph Collection of Marriott International and Tampa’s legendary Bern’s Steak House. The new food-focused hotel will feature a state-of-the-art culinary classroom, a wine shop, a rooftop lounge and a retail and production bakery and pastry shop.
St. Petersburg/Clearwater
To the west, across Tampa Bay, the peninsula of St. Petersburg/Clearwater is coming off a banner year as well.
“We had the best year in the history of Pinellas County,” confirms David Downing, deputy director of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater (VSC), who notes that hosting the RNC with Tampa, providing lodging and other infrastructure and serving with Tampa as a social media command center, created a template for how to promote the Tampa Bay area and handle events of that magnitude. “We both agree that one of the great takeways from the RNC is it taught us a new way to market collectively. Tampa Bay is the second-largest region in Florida besides Miami-Dade County. We still have yet to capitalize on the power of the region.”
One recent accolade may help do just that. USA Today just named Clearwater Beach the “Best Beach Town in Florida” following an online poll.
Dining accolades are in order as well, as celebrity chef and author Emeril Lagasse will feature the area’s fresh Gulf seafood and other culinary delights in a new series, Emeril’s Florida, which premiered in January on the Cooking Channel.
Meanwhile, area hotels continue to make strides as the TradeWinds Island Grand recently completed a $20 million restoration of its 584 rooms and suites, and a new property is set to open by the end of March: the boutique Birchwood Inn in downtown St. Petersburg, where the main lure for groups will be a rooftop bar space overlooking the city.PageBreak
Sarasota
South of the Tampa Bay area, the RNC also impacted the artsy enclave of Sarasota.
“People came to be close to the beach and close to the convention,” reports Kelly Defebo, meeting and group sales manager for Visit Sarasota County.
Unrelated to the convention, though, tourism and meetings business in the destination is on the upswing.
“Our hotels are doing great, and we’re seeing a lot of RFPs for 2014, ’15 and ’16, so we’re looking good,” Defebo says.
Also trending upward are longer apres-meeting stays, Defebo says.
“I’m seeing a lot of groups recommending pre and post more so than in the last couple of years, so that to me signifies things are improving,” she notes.
While group business looks healthy across the board in Sarasota, one segment that’s growing “by leaps and bounds,” according to Defebo, is sports travel, with rowing a standout in particular. In fact, Sarasota is poised to become a major rowing center in 2014 with opening of Nathan Benderson Park, the only Class A FISA-sanctioned permanent 2000-meter World Class Sprint Course in North America.
“The venue will play host to all types of rowing events, including this year’s U.S. Masters National Championships and what we hope will be the 2017 World Rowing Championships,” says Nicole Rissler, VSC’s new director of sports. “We are currently bidding on the event and will know in September.”
Rissler says once the facility is completely built out with its boathouse, it will offer a variety of meeting space and team building.
More new meeting space can be found on the southern end of Sarasota County, where the beachy town of Venice recently welcomed a new Ramada property offering more than 10,000 square feet of event space.
