Hotel Shortage May Cost Atlanta Big Meetings Business

ATLANTA— The mega telecommunications show, Supercomm, is slated to be held at the Georgia World Congress Center for another year, then it will move to Chicago through 2006. Show officials said they want to come back to Atlanta, but if attendance continues to grow as rapidly as it has— 20% per year over the last three years— by 2007 it will have outgrown even an expanded GWCC and will require more hotel rooms than Atlanta currently has. Attendance at the 2001 show here last week was up approximately 4%, and Supercomm attendees had to stay in more than 100 hotels spread across the metro area and use 25 transportation routes. Atlanta has 20,200 hotel rooms in downtown, midtown, and Buckhead, according to PKF. By contrast, Chicago has 28,000 downtown rooms with another 4,600 planned by 2004. SOURCE: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution