TOURISM Business Is Booming Again

ONE ACRONYM-NAHB-spells success for Dallas’ convention and tourism business, arguably the most important cog in the downtown economy and a major cash cow for the city as a whole. NAHB stands for National Association of Home Builders. Ask Dallas hoteliers, and they’ll tell you NAHB, one of the largest convention groups in the country, is back, having signed on to bring some 58,000 money-bearing visitors

to Dallas in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

“NAHB is a barometer group that has not been here since the ’80s,” says Stacy Thaler Martin, resident manager of The Adolphus Hotel. “When other large groups are looking for a location, they see the fact that they are coming back here as a vote of confidence. It’s great for this city, and we have already started to draw better conventions.”

After a decline that started in the late ’80s and continued through 1992, the convention business in Dallas today is truly booming. For the last three years, says Greg Elam, vice president of communications for the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, more than one million future room nights have been booked each year. Dallas, with about 13 million visitors annually, stands firmly as die No, 1 leisure destination in the state of Texas and is second only to Chicago in convention business.

To get an idea of just how successful Dallas is in convention and tourism when compared to other Texas cities, look at the tax revenues. Every sleeping room in the state is subject to a 6 percent tax. Metro Dallas collects 21.8 percent of that tax revenue, while Houston, even with a larger population? amasses only 17.4 percent. San Antonio, the proud home of attractions such as die Alamo, the Riverwalk, Sea World and Fiesta Texas, collects just 12.6 percent, and metro Fort Worth, including Arlington and its corridor of tourist attractions, brings in only 6.9 percent.

Dallas’ success primarily rides upon a 1994 expansion of downtown’s Convention Center and another $4.6 million in refur-bishments due for completion in August 1997-changes that put Dallas back in the top ranks of convention cities. Dallas’ success can also be attributed in part to news of a downtown Dallas renaissance making its way to convention planners and travel agents across the country.

“Downtown is my most important asset to sell,” says Dave Whitney, president and CEO of die Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau. “It is critical that we give it a safe and clean image. That’s what people expect, and that’s what they get from our competition [in other cities].”

“Downtown is going through a significant renaissance that would only be evident for someone who hasn’t come down and looked around lardy,” says Greg Elam. “We have added two new public parks in the last year and a half-Pioneer Plaza, which features the bronze cattle drive, and Pegasus Plaza in the center of downtown.

“Main Street is finished with banners and special lighting and paving. And light rail as it passes through downtown has created an all-new promenade that you can stroll down,” Elam says. With the largest DART light-rail station directly under the Convention Center (and every downtown hotel located within two blocks of light rail), nor to mention great frequency, air conditioning and inexpensive rides between Pearl and the Convention Center, DART is a conventioneer’s dream, he says.

Elam adds that many people who live in Dallas aren’t aware of subtle changes that make a big difference to visitors-like the Dallas Ambassadors Program, introduced in April 1994. The Ambassadors, a group of men and women trained in first aid, CPR, customer service, cultural diversity, safety awareness, and the geography and landmarks of Dallas, stroll the streets of downtown weekdays from 11:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Armed with maps and radios and recognizable in their red and blue uniforms, they made 65,000 contacts with visitors to downtown in their first year on the streets.

“There really aren’t any disadvantages to being downtown,” says Stacy Martin of the Adolphus Hotel. “Downtown as a destination is so convenient to so many things. You have the West End, Deep Ellum, the McKinney corridor. These are the things we have to sell. You can stay in die suburbs and go to a mall, but here you have eclectic shopping within minutes and a flagship Neiman Marcus. Those are the things that make downtown different.”

The newest visitors* trend that Martin is noticing is an influx of “tourists” from the Dallas suburbs who are choosing to come downtown for weekend getaways. “We try to make occasions for our guests-a nice room, a romantic dinner in the French Room. We try to get them to come back year after year and it’s working,” she says.

Though such local tourism may cause an uptick in weekend business for downtowns hotels, don’t underestimate the power of the convention business-it makes or breaks downtown hotels. John Unwin, general manager of the Fairmont Hotel, says the health of the convention business is very significant since 62 percent of his business is group business. Based in large part on the health of that business and advanced bookings that indicate the trend is here to stay for some time, the Fairmont is embarking on an $18 million renovation over the next two and a half years.

The Ramada Plaza, 1101 S. Akard, has just completed a floor-to-ceiling redesign and renovation to all 12 floors. Hotel management was able to enlist city help in sprucing up its immediate area, known as the Cedars Park Development. Now, at the closest hotel to the Dallas Convention Center, guests can enjoy upscale facilities as well as services geared to the needs of today’s traveler-such as in-room dataports and a business resource center.

The Dallas Market Center, back on solid financial footing, continues to draw many thousands of visitors to its annual fashion and home furnishings markets. And there are options and rumors of options: In 1997, TriMark Construction will open a new AmeriSuites Hotel at Corbin and Lamar in die West End, according to Betheny L. Reid of the West End Association. Let the word go forth to conventioneers everywhere.