Raleigh City Plaza (Photo credit: Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau)
As of Monday (April 25), the Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau reported a loss of $3.5 million in business, representing 7,106 rooms and 5,283 attendees since the March 23 passage of HB2 by the North Carolina legislature.
That number reflects outright cancellations, a boycott of North Carolina to pressure legislators to change the law that effects the rights of the LGBT community.
A bigger number is at-risk business, said Loren Gold, executive VP, Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau. Wake County is at risk of losing business that equates to 50,684 rooms, 82,504 attendance and $35.8 million in economic impact. That includes conventions, trade shows, meetings and sporting events. “We do quite a few youth and amateur athletic events in this community,” he noted.
“They are taking a wait-and-see stance because the legislature, after passing this bill in a special session, is now back in session, the short session that started Monday night and will go through Memorial Day,” Gold said. “There is some outside speculation that potentially the legislature will take a deeper look at this, maybe step back from the current bill, maybe modify it, perhaps do nothing. So there are groups that have said, ‘hey look, our meeting isn’t until 2017 or 2018 so we’re taking a wait and see, but we want to put you on notice that if HB2 continues, we’re going to be looking at pulling.”
The bureau’s approach has been to disseminate the facts and deal with cancellations, inquiries and questions on a case-by-case basis. The calls, email and letters go to those groups’ lead contact at centers and hotels, whether it is the director of sales, sales manager or services department, Gold said.
“We do know letters were sent by ASAE, Convention Industry Council and IAEE directly to the governor expressing concern with HB2,” Gold said, referring to associations in which the bureau is a vendor member. The primary membership group, Destination Marketing Association International, has not taken a stand, he said.
“Each Monday, we update our numbers,” he said. The current total represents 12 conventions, seminars and meetings.
He gets it that those associations are nonprofit trade associations. Many on the professional society side have open requirement laws because of their membership. HB2 “may go against the grain of a by-law of the association, and I think it’s a commonly known fact these associations rely heavily on the revenue they generate from annual meetings, probably 50-60 percent of total operating revenue. They bring 2,000 to a meeting and, because of a law like this, it’s 1,200 instead. They’re at risk. We get that. Those at-risk groups want to be in Raleigh. Ours is an open and inclusive city. They have to look at their bottom line and their overall liability in continuing to meet in Raleigh.”
Gold could not address contractural issues involved. Again, it is case by case, dependent upon their cancellation clauses and the time gap prior to the potential meeting date.
“I seriously think a lot of people are taking a wait and see,” he said. “I think some of our bigger conventions that are in 2017 and 2018 are taking a wait and see.”
Raleigh just lost a convention center piece of business, an organization that represented community transportation, because some of the attendees are municipal employees who work for cities that put a travel ban on nonessential travel to North Carolina, he said. “They chose to move to another city, but what was communicated to us is once HB2 is resolved or dissolved, they will immediately reconsider Raleigh.”
“I don’t know if that is quite enough salve for the wound, but it is what it is and we have to respect their wishes in that regard,” Gold said. “In the association space, the way they are structured, it isn’t something you can argue with.”
In the convention center space, Raleigh historically 70,000-80,000 room nights, so the loss is 10 percent or less, maybe closer to five percent, but that’s still a loss, he said. “As easy as it is to say you lost this business, go find another one, they weren’t coming in till 2018, people fail to realize it took three years to get these people. It took sales efforts, prospecting, dialoguing with groups that don’t book six months out, they book two to four years out. The booking cycle for large venues is different. We’re trying to educate our local elected officials on that to carry that message to the statehouse”.
Cancellations and at risk business doesn’t encompass yet another category – lost opportunities. “That’s hard to put a number on,” Gold said.
Gold cannot see anything pros in the business in Raleigh could have done differently. “This started as a local ordinance in Charlotte and spiraled into a state issue. Those in power were motivated enough to enact a special session and ultimately a law. We are not a political organization. My advice to peers in the DMO [destination management] space is to continue to stay abreast of state issues, because I think you’ll see some similar legislation coming out of other states – maybe Tennessee and Texas – and continue to be dialogue about educating stakeholders on the value of tourism.”
The Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau has incorporated a section on their website presenting points of view, but has maintained a facts-only professional stance.
“As much as I’d love to say don’t boycott us, it’s the right of groups to do so. I’m not a big believer a boycott is the right way versus coming to Raleigh and speaking out against it. It was not a bill initiated by our elected leaders but it is what it is.”
Business goes on. Tourism has not halted. “We just successfully hosted the Society of American Travel Writers, 100 members of the travel media and vendors, for a two-and-a-half day conference,” Gold said. “That went incredibly well.”
Interviewed for this story: Loren Gold, (919) 645-2669