All scheduled conventions at New Orleans’ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center have been canceled at least through 2005 because of Hurricane Katrina, leaving meeting planners across the country scrambling for alternate venues.
Some groups may be coming to Denver.
The Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau said it has fielded more than 40 phone calls from frantic meeting planners. A few groups are close to committing to relocating to the Colorado Convention Center, said convention bureau president Richard Scharf.
“The New Orleans convention bureau has asked all of us to help respond as quickly as possible to the customers,” he said. “We certainly aren’t taking advantage of the situation; we’re just trying to help out.”
Discounted rental fees will be offered to groups needing alternate venues.
“We’re not going to gouge people on the pricing,” Scharf said.
The Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses, which was scheduled to meet in New Orleans in three weeks, has moved its meeting to the Las Vegas Hilton. The American Society of Anesthesiologists, which was planning to bring 16,000 attendees to New Orleans in late October, is searching for a new location.
Denver has fewer rooms than New Orleans – 4,200 committable hotel rooms within 1 mile of its convention center. With 18,000 rooms that close, New Orleans ranks third in the country. San Francisco is No. 1; New York is No. 2; Las Vegas is No. 4.
New Orleans drew 10.1 million visitors last year, with roughly 30 percent coming to the city for conventions, according to the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. Direct spending from visitors exceeded $4.9 billion.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
