PHILADELPHIA? PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is projecting occupancy gains as high as 12 points for hotels based here during the Republican National Convention to be held in July 2000. That trend will carry beyond the convention, according to PWC, adding 10 occupancy percentage points for hotels in August 2000 and continuing to spur hotel demand in the city well after politicians and their supporters leave the area. PWC posted the news to its Internet-based lodging data resource, LodgingResearch.com. The Republican National Convention will take place from July 29 to August 2000. The Republican National Committee will hold its summer meeting, an event expected to draw roughly 1,000 out of town attendees, just prior to the convention. In addition to convention participants, some 15,000 media members will invade Philadelphia before July 29. ?The GOP convention will fuel a rise in demand and the city will enjoy a hotel occupancy uptick despite the addition of 3,000 new downtown hotel rooms by July 2000,? said Warren Marr, Philadelphia-based consultant with the hospitality and leisure team in the PricewaterhouseCoopers financial advisory services practice. Marr cautioned, however, that Philadelphia should undertake efforts to ensure that travelers do not shy away from the city during the event due to fears of hotel room scarcity. He said the city must advertise that hotel rooms will be widely available despite the GOP convention. ?Any major convention or exposition has a tendency to discourage other potential visitors who fear congestion, crowding and a lack of available lodging,? Marr said. ?Philadelphia has more than enough rooms to go around, and that message is an important one for the city to send in the US and abroad.? According to Marr, the global exposure Philadelphia receives as a national convention host city, combined with aggressive tourism marketing, should improve regional summer lodging demand in the future. Marr also noted that summer is a traditionally slow time of year for hotel occupancy levels in Philadelphia. ?Philadelphia will likely get some of the same benefit of increased tourism that San Diego enjoyed after hosting the 1996 Republican National Convention,? Marr said. ?While Philadelphia will never draw the sun-worshippers San Diego drew after its convention, we anticipate increased media coverage of Philadelphia during the convention will attract travelers, especially those who enjoy history, who might never have considered this a vacation destination. ?Further, a flurry of recently announced new retail and entertainment development projects in Center City Philadelphia could aid leisure and group tourism,? Marr added.
