VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) — Event planners are looking at the Virginia Beach Convention Center and deciding to pass.
According to Brad Van Dommelen, Director of the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, it’s because the city doesn't have a headquarters hotel.
“We just lost two major groups last week for that specific reason that we don't have the hotel package in proximity to the convention center,” said Van Dommelen.
In a letter to city council, City Manager Dave Hansen said Virginia Beach recently lost more than $1 million in direct visitor spending because the city is not taking advantage of the multi-billion convention and meetings market.
Headquarter Hotel at VB Oceanfront by 13News Now on Scribd
A headquarters hotel is essentially an anchor for the convention center, as it would be large enough and close enough for an event to hold its center of operations.
A study conducted by HVS Convention, Sports and Entertainment Facilities Consulting found a headquarters hotel would bring in more than 300 jobs and about $2.6 million dollars in tax revenue a year.
“It helps keeps residents taxes down in order for the city to invest in infrastructure, schools and police and fire, and all those resources to make a city function,” said Van Dommelen, referring to additional tax revenue.
While critics might argue there are plenty of hotels around the Convention Center at the Oceanfront, Van Dommelen said convention planners don’t like contracting with a lot of hotels in order to accommodate all their attendees.
“Then they have to deal with a shuttle program to transport their attendees back and forth to the convention center and they also feel they lose the [networking] opportunity for their attendees…because they’re spread out too far and they’re not making those business connections with each other they want to have when they’re at a convention,” said Van Dommelen.
In order for the project to move from a conception standpoint to a dialogue standpoint, Van Dommelen said city council must start discussing it.
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