Fortunately, the new High Point International Home Furnishings Market Authority Corp. is poised to do just that. Legislative approval for two new taxes to fund the authority comes just in time to help the city fend off a new threat from a formidable suitor. High Point, the Triad and North Carolina stand to lose big in the gamble some wealthy developers are staking in Las Vegas. It's the state's largest single event, bringing in more people to a larger portion of the state for a longer period of time than anything else. With each market, however, organizers rack up complaints about High Point's amenities, or lack thereof.
Parking is limited, rental cars are sometimes difficult to get, and traffic is often congested.
Plus, since the city has only one full-service hotel with 252 rooms, many visitors have to drive as much as an hour each way, each day, to and from their accommodations. That resistance likely helped High Point hang on to market supremacy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the Dallas Market Center made a serious bid to take it away. Like Las Vegas, Dallas was a big city with myriad amenities. Still, High Point prevailed. The success was attributed in part to moves to offer hotel-air fare packages for groups of buyers, to form the Triad Housing Bureau to help marketgoers find lodging and to begin shuttle bus service.