Salt Lake convention numbers are hanging in there

Salt Lake County's convention business is being hit by the recession, but a turnaround could be right around the corner.

While the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau is predicting a 6 percent to 7 percent decrease in the number of convention visitors this year from what it once predicted — continuing a trend that started last summer — the bureau is coming off its second-best year for booking future conventions.

Scott Beck, president and chief executive officer of the bureau, said 2008 was a year of "great optimism."

"When we started out the year, it was a very different picture than where we ended the year," Beck said Wednesday. "We still, even with beginning of the bad news of the economy and with all of the pessimism that started to come out in July and August, we still continued to have very strong success."

The bureau last year booked conventions with 210,784 delegates for future years, topping the 210,784 booking figure a year earlier. Only a pre-Olympics year was better. Room nights booked for future years was 398,596, up from 353,795 in 2007.

"Just our ability to get people to commit to Salt Lake, even in a time when there was not a lot economic security, was a real powerful statement for us on the confidence people have in Salt lake and relevance of our product at a time when value is very important for people.

"We left the year with a great sense of optimism and frankly that has continued on. We beat January. Our January booking numbers are better than last January and February looks to be equally as strong. Even though corporate travel is down and there is obviously some economic uncertainty right now, the future looks very bright."

Still, convention visitorship and room bookings were off last year, compared with 2007. The number of convention delegates coming to Salt Lake County fell from 302,473 to 273,974, delegate room nights dropped from 392,614 to 329,698, and delegate spending slipped from $264.4 million to $243.6 million. Overall county visitor spending decreased from more than $1 billion in 2007 to $952.3 million last year.

"We began to notice smaller attendance, less corporate travel and smaller exhibitor room blocks sometime around June or July last year, and by the end of the fourth quarter, after (people saw) the reality of how deep this recession was going to go, we began to see those numbers trail off," Beck said.

The higher number for future-year bookings does not indicate that "there's an end in sight for the current woes of the economy," he cautioned. "But what it does signal to us is that our product is still relevant, that the people who know they are going to meet…they recognize that Salt Lake is a product that meets their needs."

Beck described the bureau's work as a "401(k) plan for the hotel community." Knowing how many conventioneers will be coming to town in the future allows hoteliers to manage their rates and make other decisions about how to fill their rooms, he said.

Another bright spot for the bureau was its "Ski Salt Lake Super Pass" sales. The program — designed to prompt skier visits to Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude — had record sales of nearly $3.2 million. When the program launched in 2001-02, sales were $220,000.

"That speaks a lot," Beck said, "to the importance of the legacy that is left by the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics and what that has done to brand Salt Lake as a ski destination."

E-MAIL: bwallace@desnews.com