More Florida Resorts Are Pursuing Business Meetings

<H1> More Florida Resorts Are Pursuing Business Meetings</H1>By Cameron Hughes

<B>T</B>o a hard-core executive, a successful meeting involves reserving space at an airport hotel and preventing anyone from leaving the premises, according to Barry Brown, head of sales and marketing at The Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla.

Fortunately for buyers and suppliers alike, that view has softened up a bit-a development for which Brown and his colleagues in the Florida hotel and resort industry take credit.

Indeed, the hotel industry has worked to forge a fundamental shift in the way many companies meet in Florida, moving luxury resort facilities to the forefront of the meetings and convention business.

"So much about a meeting is not on a flip chart," Brown said. "It's the camaraderie, the team-building, the incentive of just being here. It's a way of rewarding employees, as well as working."

Resort hoteliers are singing a similar tune across the state, and for good reason. Not long ago, Florida was purely a leisure destination, from Mickey to the beaches. But even the sunshine state has experienced seasonal shifts in that market.

Resorts have learned they can smooth out the swings in leisure tourism by bringing in business groups-and they've put together the infrastructure and the staff to do it.

"Back in the old days, businesses met in business properties," said Lisa Cole, a spokeswoman for the Fountainebleau Hilton in Miami Beach. "Now the trend is for business meetings to include some opportunity for leisure activities. Florida has become so successful as a business destination because we have leisure facilities here."

Cole's hotel recently completed a $4.5 million renovation of its Towers Level. Business amenities include three telephones, two phone lines, and a dataport and a fax machine in every room. Cole said the property saw a 14 percent increase in corporate meetings business last year. "We're becoming much more aggressive in that market," she said.

Industry officials in other parts of the state have reported steep increases in the market as well. The Orlando Convention & Visitors Bureau said the number of corporate meetings has doubled over the past six years. Palm Beach County has reported more than 20 percent in annual increases in group business every year since 1992; room nights for conference attendees now account for more than 40 percent of volume at 43 meetings hotels throughout the county.

Part of the growth can be attributed to new resort construction and its reconstruction for the meetings industry. Examples include the $75 million renovation of The Breakers in Palm Beach, the development of a new Loews property in Miami Beach and new Disney properties in Orlando. In fact, Walt Disney World has adopted a more aggressive strategy in targeting the meetings industry with the opening of its fourth meetings hotel this summer and its largest convention hotel set for 1997 (Meetings Today, Jan. 29).

At the same time, officials throughout the state have focused their efforts on better marketing for meetings and conferences.

"Five years ago, our meeting division was virtually nonexistent," said Charles Lehmann, director of the Tourist Development Council in Palm Beach County, an affiliate of the county convention bureau. "Now we have seven employees dedicated to selling and servicing meetings and conventions."

Of course, selling the state is not too hard. Florida's natural attractions are well-known-golden beaches, swaying palms, golf greens galore. Air service to the state is abundant, especially from the Northeast as a result of competitive air fares. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which offers heavily discounted rates and ticketless travel, is certain to kick off a new round of fare wars now that it is launching several low-cost routes here (Meetings Today, Jan. 29).

"Southwest has given a boost to business travel in every market it's entered," said Miami-based travel consultant Jim Cammisa. "If the patterns hold true, you'll get the same stimulus for traffic to Florida."

Resorts, meanwhile, hold other advantages for meeting planners. Resort meetings often are less expensive than city-center events, and they lend themselves to weekend meetings: The forums don't cut into workweek productivity and they mean lower airfares. And a resort's ability to accommodate spouses and children boosts the incentive dimension of the meeting package.

In a new cost-saving trend, planners increasingly are booking into the shoulder and low seasons, enjoying the advantages of resort meetings at a fraction of the cost. At The Ritz-Carlton, Naples, for example, room rates drop more than 35 percent in the shoulder season and 60 percent in the summer. Given those savings, "June has become a very, very popular month, and September has become extraordinarily popular," said Brown.

In addition, Florida's experience as a travel destination gives it broad expertise in the business of hospitality. Alongside its resorts have sprung up support businesses like Excel Destination Management Services Inc. in Naples, which provides transfers and hosts activities, tours, theme parties, entertainment and special events for corporate clients.

"A lot of the companies we serve are interested in team-building activities," said Excel's president, Bryan Pease. "Do a build-your-own Olympics on the beach with the Gulf of Mexico as a backdrop, and a lot of employees who've been getting cabin fever up north are really going to remember that."

In addition, last year Disney launched Disney Business Productions to support meetings, conventions and product launches on a global basis. In Florida, the company relies primarily on its theme parks for its services.

"One of the most significant factors is the way in which we loop the strong desirability of our theme parks into the equation," said George Aguel, vice president of sales and service at Walt Disney Attractions Inc. "On a private basis, we offer a wide range of thematically oriented sensational events that can be added to a program, making use of Epcot, Disney MGM Studios or the Magic Kingdom, as well as nighttime entertainment on Treasure Island."

Other support activities used by resorts across the state include golf, yachting, fishing, tennis, horseback riding and ranch tours. The Ritz-Carlton in Naples has used an art gallery in town for receptions and has hired a naturalist to lead a group on a shelling trip to its private island.

"We've seen most meetings cut down on free time in favor of group activities-not just to lie down by the pool, but to keep people's minds going," said Brown. "We really are trying to stimulate our guests, to broaden their horizons. That inspires creative thinking-and a lot of work gets done.