Visitors Bureau In Carlsbad Pursues
Group Sales Efforts
BIO 2001 attendees spent $13.8 million in San Diego last month, according to the San Diego Convention Center Corp.
The event, which brought in 14,500 delegates who booked 25,000 room nights, had a total economic impact of $27.7 million, according to the Convention Center Corp.’s estimates.
The exposure will give meeting planners around the world reason to consider bringing their trade shows and conventions to San Diego, said Carol Wallace, the organization’s president and CEO.
“With our newly expanded Convention Center opening Sept. 14, the timing couldn’t be better,” Wallace said.
“Once again, as with the Republican National Convention, the 1998 Super Bowl and thousands of other events, we have proved that San Diego is the perfect host city,” she continued.
San Diego is reportedly negotiating with Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Association to bring the event back to San Diego in possibly 2008.
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Carlsbad CVB Readies Sales Plans:
The Carlsbad Convention & Visitors Bureau is working on a proposal to seek funding from the City Council to stimulate group sales , and ultimately start its own group sales effort.
The plan should be completed by the end of August, according to bureau spokesman Frankie Laney.
A couple of months ago, Carlsbad began steps toward a more aggressive sales practice. At a meeting of the bureau’s board of directors in May, a plan was approved to outsource group sales through an agreement with a contractor.
Checking In:
Locally based Anthony’s Seafood Group is getting ready to launch a second Anthony’s Express location. The new shop, which is planned to open in early September, will be in Kearny Mesa, close to where Clairemont Mesa Boulevard meets Interstate 805. According to Marketing Director Andrew Hauser, the new location fits Anthony’s basic criteria: central location, good mix of business traffic at lunch and residential traffic at dinnertime, and a community location with a wide demographic pull. Also, the company wanted a slightly larger site for the new location. (The first opened in November in Mission Valley, off Qualcomm Way.) Developments such as a new House 2 Home store and a expanded 24 Hour Fitness “should provide great traffic in the center,” Hauser said. San Diego North Convention & Visitors Bureau recently created a guidebook to further their efforts to position North County as a resort destination. Local restaurateurs David Cohn and George Hauer will be honored in events in upcoming months. Cohn will receive the “Restaurateur of the Year” award from the California Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. The dinner takes place Aug. 24 in Los Angeles. In October, the local CRA chapter will salute Hauer for his recent induction to a national Dining Hall of Fame. The event will be a roast that will raise money for CRA’s political action committee. Room rates are unsurprisingly higher at the newly renovated Bristol Hotel in Downtown San Diego. Before, rates were $89-$119 per night, and since the $3 million remodeling, rates have increased to $129-$179. General Manager Tim Earp wouldn’t reveal the hotel’s actual occupancy.
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Here Comes The New Owners:
Bridal Bazaar, which has its upcoming summer expo July 15, is under new ownership. Betsy Winsett and Patricia Westbrook, who own a small marketing firm in town, recently bought the event rights from previous owner Heather Somers.
Terms of the sale, which were done through a private broker, were not disclosed. It took place in February.
Incidentally, a Bridal Bazaar representative reports Somers sold her business because she fell in love, got married and is now traveling around the world with “the man of her dreams.”
The deadline for the next tourism & hospitality column is July 12. Rodrigues can be reached at (858) 277-6359, Ext. 107, or via e-mail at trodrigues@sdbj.com.
