Meeting expectations: as recession loosens its stranglehold on the economy, meetings and conventions drive tourism recovery.

• Position: Interview

After taking a huge hit when the Great Recession virtually shut down business and leisure travel, North Carolina's meeting and convention business is starting to recover. Industry leaders from across the state met recently to discuss ongoing challenges as well as opportunities from major upcoming events, including the 2012 Democratic National. Convention in Charlotte and the 2014 U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open in Pinehurst. Participating were Angela Beattie, regional director of sales and marketing for Hulsing Hotels, which operates three hotels in Asheville, including the Crowne Plaza Tennis and Golf Resort; Dennis Edwards, president and CEO of the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau; John Meroski, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau; Caleb Miles, president of the Pinehurst, Southern Pines and Aberdeen Area Convention and Visitors Bureau; Tim Newman, CEO of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority; and Jim Thompson, executive director of the Association Executives of North Carolina, which hosted the round table at its offices in Raleigh. BUSINESS NORTH Carolina Publisher Ben Kinney moderated the discussion, sponsored by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority and. the Fayetteville Area Convention and. Visitors Bureau. Following is a transcript, edited for brevity and clarity.

How important is the meeting-and-convention business to North Carolina and to your communities?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Miles: Travel and tourism is the No. 2 industry in Moore County behind health care. We've lost a lot of our industrial base, so without those two we would be a very different county. There are a lot of assets in place to accommodate people that come for meetings and conventions, and those are assets that benefit both the visitor and the local resident. So that's a big part of what we are. Our identity is actually tied to our tourism product.

Edwards: Until we opened the Convention Center in downtown Raleigh, conventions and meetings weren't on anyone's radar. But since the building opened, the city and the entire county are starting to recognize what meetings and conventions do. We've seen a lot more restaurants and bars open up in the downtown area, better transportation programs, better customer service with taxis. Everybody that touched and felt it has now recognized the importance of it and improved their service level across the board. Raleigh-Durham International Airport spent over $800,000 to ensure that Terminal 2 was done before the NHL All-Star Game. When hotel occupancy started to decline with the economy, meetings and conventions still were already contracted and booked to come to Raleigh. So that was one market segment that really held our hotels together. The attendance might have declined, but the meetings in general still occurred.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Beattie: Our hotels, in general, were successful through most of 2008 because of meetings and conventions, and many of our hotels in Asheville are meetings-and conventions-based. Our strongest base is that segment. So many of our hotels were successful right up to the end of 2008. In 2009, they took a plunge.

Newman: At the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, we're responsible for the Convention Center, NASCAR Hall of Fame, Time Warner Cable Arena, Bojangles Coliseum, Ovens Auditorium and the airport. The idea is anything that touches a visitor is something we're going to be engaged with. Meetings and conventions will account for about a third of the annual room nights that we'll generate in the city. The other third will be business travel, and the final third will be leisure travel and amateur sports.

What local assets do you leverage to promote your areas for meetings and conventions?

Newman: Charlotte has always been the largest single destination in the state. You're looking at a $16-$17 billion industry, including about $4 billion right now in the Charlotte region. But we didn't have that hook to allow us to really compete with the national big boys in terms of conventions. The reason we did the NASCAR Hall of Fame is it gives us a grand ballroom and has allowed us to pull off a national association meeting and, most recently, the Democratic National Convention. And the airport is such a huge engine for all of us. It's a vital asset for the entire state as far as a destination link for this business, no matter where folks are coming from.

Meroski: Meetings and conventions are about 30% of our travel-and-tourism industry in Fayetteville. That will continue to grow significantly with BRAC--Base Realignment and Closure. The Army Forces Command and Army Reserve Command are moving their headquarters out of Atlanta and will be located on Fort Bragg. We...