Hotel industry able to meet city's tourist needs

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The weekend of June 16-18 brought lots of visitors to Springfield. Key events such as the Route 66 Music Festival and the Wilson's Creek Civil War Reenactment took place here, as well as the Heart of America Tournament of Champions and several other sports tournaments. In addition, the Missouri Republican Party State Convention gathered.|ret||ret||tab|

According to Dana Maugans, director of sales for the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, those conventions and events resulted in a lot of overnight guests in the city's hotels and motels.|ret||ret||tab|

"We called last week to find out who had available rooms, and at the end of the day Friday (June 16) we only knew of about 40 that were left," Maugans said.|ret||ret||tab|

Tammy Leigh, director of communications for the CVB, said statistics on the exact number of rooms that were used June 16-18 are not yet available. She added that even though it is possible that people canceled room reservations Friday evening because of the weather, hotels and motels were still fairly full, since other people likely came to town to stay overnight without reservations.|ret||ret||tab|

CVB does have statistics though, that show the availability and occupancy of hotel and motel rooms is growing in Springfield. Mark Smith, president of the Springfield Hotel and Motel Association, and general manager of the Clarion Hotel, said the hotel and motel industry in Springfield can accommodate the growth.|ret||ret||tab|

"There's been a lot of supply, which is new hotel rooms, added to the market in the last five years," Smith said. He noted that there are also several hotels that will be built here soon, as well as some existing ones that plan to add more rooms.|ret||ret||tab|

Smith said the hotel and motel industry is growing in Springfield in both supply and demand. He said tourism will also likely increase because of several attractions under development in Springfield.|ret||ret||tab|

"There's some really good things on the horizon for Springfield. The Wonders of Wildlife (museum) is supposed to bring over a million people to the city, and Jordan Valley Park has some real strong potential also," Smith said.|ret||ret||tab|

Leigh noted that local events are also growing in popularity and are bringing guests to Springfield's hotels and motels.|ret||ret||tab|

"Even Artsfest is bringing more people from out of town. Whether it's a surrounding Springfield area, I see a lot of out-of-towners in general with all the big events...Route 66, Artsfest. I can see Frisco Days eventually getting big enough to bring in people," Leigh said.|ret||ret||tab|

Maugans added that although there was a lot of mention in the media about the many events and expected visitors to the city June 16-18, there are a lot of other times throughout the year that are just as busy. |ret||ret||tab|

She said with the ample sleeping rooms available in the city, what's really needed in the hotel and motel industry is a hotel that has enough meeting space for conventions, plus ample sleeping rooms for convention guests.|ret||ret||tab|

Maugans said there are hotels in the city with ample meeting space, such as the University Plaza Hotel, which has a convention center of about 22,000 square feet, as well as several meeting rooms, and 271 sleeping rooms, that bring conventions and overnight guests to Springfield. But she said many conventions that consider coming to Springfield want more rooms at their convention location.|ret||ret||tab|

"A lot of conventions need at least 400 rooms (at their convention sites) in order to come to Springfield," Maugans said. She said if the city had a hotel with more than 400 rooms plus meeting space, preferably close to downtown, more and larger groups would come to Springfield. Maugans and Leigh agreed that the Expo Center which developer John Q. Hammons pledged to build could also bring more people to Springfield.|ret||ret||tab|

Regardless of what brings people to town, Leigh said the city is well-equipped to deal with a growing number of visitors in several aspects.[[In-content Ad]]