Conventions are big business in the United States with more than 800,000 national meetings held annually, much of that market dominated by corporate bookings. Collectively, these conventions attracted some 55 million attendees in 1993. The more than 500 public and private convention and meeting centers in the United States, in fact, typically form a linchpin in the economic development strategies of local and regional governments. Convention center development and expansion have been components of local economic development strategies since the mid-1980s and continue to rise. Planned expansions of exhibition space in convention centers are expected to generate 58.8 million square feet as of 1994, climbing to 64 million by 1999.
Most cities require a convention headquarters hotel to market their convention center successfully.
Conversely, room nights generated from a convention center are often insufficient to exclusively support a convention headquarters hotel serving the meetings and trade shows so important to local economies. Further complicating the problem, convention headquarters hotels often incur higher than typical development costs due to the amount and quality of public areas required. This hotel, in turn, will support the public investment made in a convention center, as well as generating other local economic benefits. They also evidence the range of options available to the public sector to support private hotel development. While these types of incentives most often may be used to support convention hotels, they may also be important tools for other types of hotel projects in which there is a strong relationship between public interests and private investment.