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San Diego's Expanded Convention Center
Considered a Success Story
By Jonathan Heller, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News 

Apr. 13--The new wing of San Diego's expanded convention center has acted as a life preserver since it opened six months ago, helping the facility stay afloat while many convention halls elsewhere have struggled to keep their heads above water. 

The convention and trade show industry took a huge hit in 2001, due to the faltering economy and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. San Diego is one of few cities that reported an increase in convention business. 

The $216 million expansion increased the bay-front center's exhibit space from 339,338 square feet to 615,701. 

"That made the destination more viable," said Carl Winston, director of San Diego State University's hospitality and tourism management program. "It can not only accommodate larger groups, but also more smaller groups." 

The expansion vaulted San Diego into the top tier of convention destinations in North America, industry experts say. And top-tier destinations tend to be better insulated from economic uncertainties. 

Meeting News, a trade publication, reported last month that San Diego ranked as the best "meetings destination" among the 40 largest North American convention cities in a survey of 1,579 meeting planners. 

The expansion made the Convention Center the 20th largest in the country, bigger than those in Boston, Miami, Atlantic City and Philadelphia, for example. 

Several cities have expanded their convention centers in the past decade. 

But, unlike San Diego, many of them now are struggling to fill them. 

Nationwide, the industry suffered a 7.4 percent dip in attendance in 2001 compared with 2000, according to Tradeshow Week, a publication that covers the the convention industry. In contrast, the San Diego Convention Center reported a 17 percent increase. 

In the fourth quarter of 2001, the period most affected by the Sept. 11 attacks, the industry saw a record-breaking 20 percent drop in attendance compared with 2000. Meanwhile, San Diego opened its new wing in that quarter and reported a 37 percent increase in attendance over the last quarter of 2000. 

"We're bucking the trend," said Carol Wallace, president of the San Diego Convention Center Corp. "We like our bar graph." 

The corporation, a public agency, manages the center, the Community Concourse and the Civic Theatre. 

It's not just its expanded size that has elevated San Diego's Convention Center into the upper ranks, said Robert Canton, director of PriceWaterhouseCoopers' sports, convention and leisure group. 

It's the center's proximity to the airport, lots of hotel rooms and a variety of entertainment opportunities. A plethora of postcard-sunny days never hurts, either. 

"If you look at the top-tier destinations including San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and San Diego, among others I think the strength has been there and has continued even through the slowdown in the national economy," Canton said. 

"Those types of destinations haven't necessarily seen declines in attendance, he added. 

Michael Hughes, director of research services for Tradeshow Week, said some convention centers have resorted to offering discounted rental rates to attract business. 

San Diego never offers discounts, but it does negotiate package deals including food, beverage and ancillary items, said Wallace, of the convention center corporation. 

"In San Diego, the industry is not shrinking," Hughes said. "San Diego has generally been considered a success story in the convention center market in the last few years." 

-----To see more of The San Diego Union-Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.uniontrib.com 

(c) 2002, The San Diego Union-Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. 


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