Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2013)
ull News Convention continued from page 1 come,’ convention center hotel strategy has repeatedly proven to fail. In markets from Phoenix to Baltimore, similar convention hotel projects have underperformed and taxpayers have been stuck with the bill while developers and landowners receive enormous windfalls.” But supporters say the hotel will bring business to the entire city, including to other hotels. And they say cities like Denver and Fort Worth Texas are examples of cities that dramatically increased their conventions business after building headquarters hotels. Potillo is one of a group of 30 convention planners and travel experts convened to advise Travel Portland on how to attract more visitors to the city. He organizes an annual convention that brings together 3,000 -3,500 educators from schools, col- leges and universities all across the United States, Canada, and beyond. “We have been looking at Portland,” he said. “But the one thing that keeps us from coming to this city is that it doesn’t have a headquarters hotel.” It matters, Potillo said, because what peo- ple want from a convention are networking opportunities in an intimate and easily accessible environment. His events include 125 breakfasts, lunches, dinners and mixers where educators can network. But they Portland is a fabulous city. It’s got natural beauty. It’s rich in culture. It has live theater, performing arts and museums. It’s pedestrian friendly and easy to navigate. And it’s got a great food scene –one of the best in the USA can’t do that unless they have a central gath- ering place. Dean Phelus agrees. Phelus organizes the American Alliance of Museums annual meeting, which brings together between 5,000 and 6,000 people from 50 different countries and every state in the union. The last time he chose Portland was in 2004, he says, when he used eight different hotels. “We’re really waiting for this headquar- ters hotel to be built before we come back to Portland,” he said. “We want the headquar- ters Hotel. We need the headquarters hotel. What I’m looking for is: ‘Am I able to pro- mote a greater sense of community and inti- macy among my group?’ So we can’t be too spread out.” Page 6 The Portland Skanner July 17, 2012 Potillo and Phelus say Portland is a dream destination in many ways and they can eas- ily rattle off the reasons why: Having a range of prices for food and entertainment all in the same neighborhood; No sales tax; Near Canada; Great book stores; Close to water. “Portland is a fabulous city,” Potillo said. “It’s got natural beauty. It’s rich in culture. It has live theater, performing arts and museums. It’s pedestrian friendly and easy to navigate. And it’s got a great food scene –one of the best in the USA –and I’ve been to just about every city in the country.” Brian McCartin, VP for convention and tourism sales with Travel Portland, said the advisory group has also given useful criti- cism. “We realized we should be asking the cus- tomers what they think of Portland as a des- tination. It’s really an opportunity to advise us and we asked them to be brutally can- did,” he said. The group told Travel Portland that it needed to improve its website. And it criti- cized Portland for having too few taxis. So last year, Travel Portland changed its web- site and supported the expansion of Port- land’s taxi permits to Union Cabs. “To see those changes, that put a smile on our faces,” said Potillo, “It may seem small but it’s significant to us. We hope you get this headquarters hotel because we’d like to come here.”
