White believes the addition of a 1,000-room hotel would not drag down Salt Lake's hotel room rates or occupancies but instead would attract more business.

The addition of smaller hotels, with 40 to 100 rooms, White said, does not enhance Salt Lake City's attractiveness as a convention destination.

"Typically, those smaller hotels pull occupancy away from the big hotels," White said. "If a 1,000-room hotel were to be constructed, we're talking about a three-year period at least to get that thing built. So it would give us that long to start pre-selling it."

According to Smith Travel Research, hotel rooms in the Salt Lake-Ogden region declined to 19,276 rooms in December 2005, down from 19,347 rooms in December 2004. At present, there are two hotels under construction in the region that will add 256 rooms to the market.

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