New Convention Ctr. To Anchor Puerto Rico's Mtgs. Biz
<B> New Convention Ctr. To Anchor Puerto Rico's Mtgs. Biz</B>
By Frank Rosci
A quantum leap in Puerto Rico's ability to host more meetings and attract more business travelers will occur in October 2002 when the new 600,000-sq.-ft. Puerto Rico Convention Center opens in San Juan.
"Lack of an adequate center to date has prevented Puerto Rico from tapping fully 80 percent of the meeting and convention market in the U.S., something the new center will allow us to do," said Jose A. Corujo, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Co.
As a result of the center--groundbreaking has been set for March 2000--Puerto Rico's thriving business atmosphere will gain increased exposure. "The center will create an awareness about Puerto Rico's business and corporate community, and attract more business travelers to the companies based here and to the ones that do business here," Corujo said.
Despite the absence of a convention center, Puerto Rico's meeting business is well-established thanks to its ideal location for business from North and South America, its warm-weather resort amenities, its already strong hotel and transportation infrastructure and its availability of superior support services, added Corujo.
Based on these factors and the already strong meetings market, concentrated mostly in hotels, such as Wyndham El Conquistador Resort & Country Club, which offers 70,000 square feet of function space, a study for the PRTC concluded that the new center would be a success, with attendance increasing rapidly once the island becomes better known as a site for major conferences. The same research projected that 242,000 meeting attendees will use the center in 2003--increasing to 413,000 by 2007--while room nights would start at 128,000 in 2003 and leap to 206,000 by 2007.
Further results of the study showed strong meeting planner interest in the island. Of the planners surveyed, 27 percent said they were "interested" in meeting in Puerto Rico, while 20 percent said they were "highly interested."
As for current meeting space, there is about 350,000 square feet available throughout Puerto Rico's hotels. The largest hotel ballroom accommodates up to 2,000 attendees for a banquet, while four properties each have ballrooms or exhibition space of about 20,000 square feet.
In addition, the Roberto Clemente Coliseum provides up to 50,000 square feet for exhibitions. In all, 14 hotels that offer a total of 6,100 rooms serve the small convention and meetings market and generated approximately 500,000 group meeting room nights in fiscal year 1997. The hotels are expected to continue to play an important role in the island's meetings business, even after the center is up and running, Corujo said.
The center, the centerpiece of phase I of a three-phase plan to develop the ambitious Americas World Trade District, will be built on a 110-acre site that is centrally located in San Juan and convenient to the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport. It will connect with an 800-room hotel via a covered Convention Center Boulevard. Though the hotel will cause an initial drop in occupancies in the San Juan hotel market, it will substantially increase the market's overall number of occupied room nights, said Corujo.