Orlando Offers Creative Venues, Plenty Of Hotel Rooms

With a constantly growing product, Orlando has developed a reputation as something of a universal answer to incentive planners' problems.

"Orlando has become something of a no-brainer for incentive travel," said Stuart Gardner, president of Gardner & Associates, a Fort Lauderdale-based destination management and meeting planning company.

"It's reached a point at which a meeting planner who needs to put together something quickly and provide a quality experience for his clients can pick Orlando and know that it's going to be more or less a can't-miss situation," he said.

Gardner, a Florida board member of the Society of Incentive Travel Executives, credits Disney as a major contributor to Orlando's status as a comfort zone for planners.

"Disney has set a standard for excellence in Orlando, and any hotel or attraction in Orlando has to meet that standard in order to compete," he said.

The destination also offers many top-quality hotels that can hold large groups. "If you are talking about an incentive group of 500 or more coming to Florida, you are probably talking Orlando, just because of the hotel requirement," said Gardner, whose firm is opening a second office there this month.

Another Florida SITE board member, Gregory Kurdian, chairman of Sunbound/GKI Marketing Group, said Orlando represents a unique situation for meeting planners.

"It's a constantly renewing resource," said Kurdian, who is bringing an incentive group of 4,000 to Orlando in March. "You've got properties like the new Caribe Royal Resort Suites, the massive expansion of Universal Studios that's under way, the fourth Disney park that's coming-the list just goes on and on."

The 1,120-suite Caribe Royal became one of a dozen 1,000-room-or-larger hotels when it opened in October. In August, Disney will open another mega property geared toward meeting groups, the 1,967-room Coronado Springs Resort.

Mona Meretsky, president of Fort Lauderdale-based Comcor Event and Meeting Production, said that Disney's proactive position toward incentive travel seems to be making the entertainment giant more flexible with small groups.

"I had a group of 45 people there not long ago, and we had a scheduling glitch in which we kept asking for dates, and by the time they could go into their computer, the dates were already taken," she said. "Finally, when they got us a firm reservation, they said, 'we are going to do something special for you.' As our party was sitting at the Magic Kingdom having dessert and coffee, along comes an unscheduled parade to entertain us. That type of thing impresses people.