Branson Convention Center bookings rebound in 2013

By any standard, 2012 was a tough year for officials at the Hilton Branson Convention Center hotel. With an EF2 tornado directly hitting the property as it wound its way down the 76-strip on Feb. 29, workers spent the heart of the tourist season doing what they could to remain a legitimate player in the convention business.

With renovations in place this year, those managing conventions at the hotel are buoyed by a 29 percent increase in convention days booked.

Lisa Jones, director of sales and marketing for the Branson Convention Center, said in 2012, despite complications due to the storm, the center hosted 215 event dates – days where at least one convention was taking place on the property. This year, she said 277 event days are booked. Hilton manages the convention center for the city as well as the adjacent Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing.

Mark Hartman, acting general manager for the Branson Convention Center, said the hotel sustained more than $20 million worth of damage and did not reopen until October. The convention center opened within a month after the storm, but without the hotel rooms available, Hartman said the company had to become experts at coordinating with other area hotels.

“What we did was we tried to move things in market. A number of our groups went to Chateau on the Lake (and) other hotels in Branson that could accommodate group needs. The majority of our groups were rearranged, but Branson still benefited,” Hartman said. “What we would do is set up transportation to some of the other hotels, so that instead of staying at the host hotel, which was the Hilton, we would move the group to the Radisson and bus them back and forth.”

He declined to say how much revenue was lost as a result of the damage or what was spent to accommodate groups, but he said insurance claims have been utilized to cover repairs.

“We replaced every window, and ended up upgrading the windows to be more energy efficient. It would have been hard to match the window, so we upgraded to help the look of the hotel and the environment,” Hartman said.

He said there were a few groups that moved events to other hotels, but he declined to cite names.

“For the most part, the majority of the groups that we did have to relocate to competitors or to other hotels in the area, have either signed with us in a future year or are looking to do so,” Jones said.

Stephen Marshall, general manager for Chateau on the Lake in Branson, said convention business has returned to 2011 levels after the hotel took on some 6,000 additional group nights last year.

“It was a windfall. There is no doubt it was a windfall – because of the circumstances,” Marshall said of business last year, declining to disclose revenues. “We just happened to be spared.”

He said the hotel picked up a handful of sizable conventions between March and May last year but only retained one due to the groups’ multiyear contracts with the Branson Convention Center.

Marshall said Chateau annually hosts about 200 groups reserving between 10 and 1,000 hotel room nights.

A 2011 survey on the economic impact convention attendees bring to the city conducted by Springfield-based H2R Market Research found that convention attendees generate $16 million annually for the Branson economy.

Hartman also said rebuilding relationships is a priority.

“We are sometimes booking three or four years into the future, so the real focus is getting the customers that have been there to come back, and they all know that (the hotel and convention center) have been put back together,” Hartman said. “We are trying to rebuild and recover some of those relationships.”

One event at the Branson Convention Center this year came back strong after a weak showing last year.

Branson Collector Car Auction operator Jim Cox said the spring auction went on without a hitch at the convention center, garnering $3.2 million in sales. That’s a jump of 39 percent from the spring 2012 auction that hit town roughly 40 days after the tornado.

“It’s not the largest sale we’ve ever had, but … this is the first auction that we’ve had that has shown signs of relief from the recession,” Cox said, noting the auction has peaked at $4.5 million in sales and averaged $3.5 million to $4 million before the recession.

He said 67 percent of the roughly 200 classic vehicles available sold this year, a jump from a low of 52 percent two years ago. Cox, who also owns the Candlestick Inn overlooking Lake Taneycomo, brings the auction to the convention center twice a year.

Last year’s troubles, he said, were due to confusion surrounding the status of the convention and hotel.

“Some people were told that the hotel was closed completely; some were told the convention center was closed. There was a lot of misinformation out there, and we had to spend quite a bit of extra money to convince people that, one, we were having an auction, that two, the convention center was open, and three, that there were other hotels other than the Hilton that were open,” Cox said, adding he spent around $100,000 in advertising to get the word out.

A future sign of hope for the convention center and hotel can be found in the red-bellied planes now landing in town. Both Jones and Hartman said they are now moving on plans to market into cities such as Chicago where Southwest Airlines has direct flights to and from Branson.

“It gives us a great opportunity to expand our potential group business to those market areas,” Jones said, also citing Dallas and Houston.

While the tornado may have changed the Hilton, Hartman said the city remains a destination for many and easier access through Southwest bodes well for business.

“Branson is really the draw. We just have a facility,” Hartman said.