Springfield losing group business to Branson

When it comes to convention business in southwest Missouri, forget population.

Branson, with some 11,000 residents, has the big net, and the head of the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau says the Queen City, with its nearly 165,000 population, is not keeping up.

In the past five years, Springfield meeting planners lost 10 bids to the Branson Convention Center, a noted trend as group travel to Springfield steadily declines.

“I’ve got a list of groups we have lost to Branson because they have a better mousetrap than we do,” said Springfield CVB CEO Tracy Kimberlin.

A coup for Branson this year was securing the Student & Youth Travel Association’s annual convention. At least 800 visitors are expected in Branson Aug. 28-Sept. 1 for the Virginia-based organization’s tradeshow and meetings.

“We’ve been working on that one for a long time – for years and years,” said Deborah Cohen, director of meeting and convention sales for the Branson/Lakes Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “They loved the Branson Convention Center and our two Hilton properties. They were ready to bring that convention to Branson.”

SYTA is on Kimberlin’s list, which he brought to Springfield Business Journal’s CEO Roundtable in August. Springfield misses out on dozens, if not hundreds, of conventions every year to Branson and other municipalities because it doesn’t have the facilities group planners are looking for, Kimberlin said.

“There is the Council on Occupational Education, Mary Kay, the Missouri Association of Area Agencies on Aging [and] the Missouri Community College Association,” Kimberlin said, adding the Missouri Municipal League used to bring 1,000 delegates to town every three years, but now they meet in Branson.

The Missouri Republican Convention is known to choose Springfield during the last two decades, and the Midwest Emmy Awards for the first year are planned outside of Kansas City or St. Louis. Both events have dates scheduled in Branson.

Annual meetings from state associations are prized in Springfield, but those conventions are passing on the Queen City more often. Group business is the only dark spot in an otherwise rosy tourism outlook.

“All the other segments are growing,” Kimberlin said, pointing to a 9.6 percent increase in Springfield room sales to $49 million through June. “Back in 2000, group rooms were almost 23 percent of all rooms occupied. When I say group rooms, that is meetings and conventions and sporting events. That was equal to 243,000 room nights. Last year, it has dropped to 13.9 percent of total rooms and the number had dropped to 169,970.”

Kimberlin points to a lack of a connectivity between the Springfield Expo Center and a convention-center hotel making Springfield a less attractive option.

“They can go to communities like Branson or St. Charles or Overland Park and have it all under one roof. That is a major problem and a primary reason our group business has decreased over time. It hasn’t decreased nationally; that is unique to Springfield,” Kimberlin said. “A lot of people think the Expo Center is a convention center. It’s not. It’s an exhibit hall. Meanwhile, other communities around the state and country are building new mousetraps to get convention business.”

Branson meeting coordinators compete with convention-center hotels in Kansas City and St. Louis but also Louisville, Ky., Memphis, Tenn., and Little Rock, Ark. Cohen said the Branson Convention Center goes head to head with the Embassy Suites Northwest Arkansas-Hotel, Spa & Convention Center – a competitor they’re more focused on than any in Springfield.

“We compete with them all the time now for state conventions in Arkansas,” she said of the Rogers, Ark., property managed by John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts.

In Springfield, the DoubleTree Hotel is expanding to attract more state and regional conferences. General Manager Brian Inman said the north-side property competes for convention business up to three years out.

“Our hotel is all about group business,” he said, noting conventions and events currently account for 30-40 percent of revenue.

The addition, expected to be done next year, would double event capacity to more than 600 from the current 270 maximum.

“It’s a smart business decision,” Inman said. “It’s no loss leader. It’s a revenue-generating source.”

Inman, the current Springfield Hotel Lodging Association board president, said investments in convention space provide a hedge against falling revenue in a down economy.

“Convention space is recession resistant. When you have a hotel tied to convention space – people are always going to have weddings; Missouri State is always going to play football; Drury is always going to play basketball and those teams are going to come here,” he said. “When the economy drops, that transient business traveler goes away.”

Gail Myer, whose family has operated hotels for years in Branson, said the hotel connectivity at the Branson Convention Center is important, but so are other attractions.

“Forget about the facility. It’s great, but it’s the marriage of the meeting and the getaway,” said Myer, the vice president of Myer Hotels Inc., which has in its portfolio the Comfort Inn & Suites Branson Meadows and the Best Western Music Capital Inn. “There has also been a lot of exposure. You know what Johnny Morris has done with the Legends tournament and at Big Cedar Lodge. They just announced Ball Parks of America and we know the Grand Palace has sold. There is a constant change of things to do and that draws folks.”

Last year, the Branson CVB helped secure 26,250 room nights in the city, which Cohen said is up 5 percent from 2013. She expects to at least reach last year’s figure in 2015. “I’ve got one really big group that I’m working on, and I have a staff person working on a really large group. If those come in, it would change,” she said.  

Cohen agrees that Branson and Springfield are in many ways different destinations.

“There are going to be a lot of groups out there that are probably looking for either a resort destination or more of a metropolitan city like Springfield,” she said. “When meeting planners look at Branson, they really like the resort-lake destination.”

Another resort-centered convention city, Las Vegas, is the basis for an idea Springfield hotelier Gordon Elliott has to solve the connectivity issues between the Expo Center and University Plaza downtown.

“You end up walking a quarter mile from your room to the meeting, but you are all inside,” he said of past meetings in Vegas. “Why hasn’t somebody said, ‘Let’s cut the street and build an underground passageway’? Connect up the UP, Expo Center and the parking lot.

“We have money coming from Wonders of Wildlife with a big political discussion of what to spend it on each year. That would make that thing go down there and ties [together] all those facilities.”

This story includes reporting from SBJ’s CEO Roundtable on tourism.