Salt Lake courts '09 Hispanic convention

Salt Lake City is in the running to host the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's annual convention in 2009.

Members of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber arrived in Salt Lake Friday to evaluate the Salt Palace as a potential site for the convention, which is projected to draw about 6,000 people.

The visitors leave tonight. They will also visit the other finalists, Denver and Albuquerque.

Eric Carson, chairman of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber's 2009 Site Selection Committee, said each of the three cities has received confidential details on the committee's criteria for the three-day convention and golf tournament, which benefits a scholarship fund.

It's important, he said, that the hosting city's Hispanic chamber, business community and government, are all involved in the Hispanic community.

"My job is to evaluate how welcoming these communities are to the Hispanic business owner," he said. Carson said he's visited Salt Lake in the past and has always found it to be "very, very friendly."

This is the first time Salt Lake City has applied to host the conference, which is expected to create about $5.2 million in revenue if held here, said Ellen Birrell, convention sales director for the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau.

It's a medium-sized convention, but has the potential to go a long way toward building Salt Lake's reputation as an accepting and diverse community.

"A lot of the attendance comes from the local area," she said. "But we feel the exposure from this will give us on a national scale, may also (help) to dispel a myth, frankly, that Salt Lake is not diverse enough for some of the conventions that we might host."

Utah's application was presented shortly after Mexican President Vicente Fox visited Salt Lake, and Birrell pointed out Utah's immigration legislation such as in-state tuition for undocumented students.

Joe Reyna, chairman of the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said Utah's population is small, but significant and fast-growing. The state's Hispanic population exploded by 138 percent during the 1990s, according the U.S. Census Bureau, and continues to grow.

Reyna said the Utah Hispanic Chamber estimates there are 5,800 Hispanic-owned businesses in Utah. Utah's 5,177 Hispanic firms in 2002 tallied $555 million in sales and receipts, according to data from the 2002 Economic Census.

The committee expects to make its site recommendation to the board before this year's convention Sept. 20-23 in Philadelphia.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com