The tide is turning for the Baltimore Convention Center with October and November events reversing a declining trend in attendance.
The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association expects an estimated 85,930 convention and meeting attendees to Baltimore over the next two months. Attendance will jump in both October and November from the previous year ? 54 percent and 67 percent respectively.
The surge in business is expected to bring $81 million into the Baltimore area.
That’s a reversal from earlier this year when the convention center drew 156,000 attendees from January to March, the lowest in four years.
Officials are particularly pleased with the Oct. 4 to 7 return of the Natural Products Expo East and its 23,600 attendees. The products expo moved its annual show to Washington, D. C., in 2001 because it needed more space.
“The sales team never gave up on Natural Products and was relentless in its efforts to get it back to Baltimore,” said Ronnie L. Burt, interim president and CEO of convention and visitors association.
“Just the month of October, close to 50,000 people will be flowing through the convention center.”
Another big attendee will be Rockwell Automation, which expects about 15,000 attendees at its Oct. 24 to 26 convention.
Burt said convention competition among cities will get tougher in coming years as expanded convention centers in Philadelphia and Boston are set to open in 2008.
And in March 2008, the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor in Prince George?s County outside Washington, D.C., is scheduled to open.
It will feature a 400,000-square-foot convention center and 1,500- room hotel.
“Meeting and convention planners give high marks to our resorts in Orlando, Dallas-Fort Worth and Nashville, but they have asked us to build a property on the East Coast as well,” said Jay Sevigny, chief operating officer of Gaylord Hotels.
