Page 34 - Shreveport-Bossier Destination Master Plan 2023 Updated

STRATEGIC GOAL #5
Increase Visitor volumes in the Meetings & Conventions Sector
The Shreveport Convention Center is an excellent facility compared to others in similar sized cities across the country, but it’s significantly underutilized. It’s estimated that only a tiny fraction of visitors traveling to Shreveport-Bossier are attending a convention, which is unacceptable for a city with
a facility on par with the Shreveport Convention Center. This is due to a variety of factors, including the lack of a large headquarter convention center hotel with the necessary committable rooms for larger convention groups seeking 500+ rooms.
A lot has to happen to capitalize on the convention center, beginning with the revitalization of Downtown Shreveport and increasing the volume of people downtown during the weekday, especially after work hours. Conferences and conventions typically occur during weekdays, which
is why this is such an important visitor segment because it drives spending in area businesses when they need it most. Convention attendees also spend more per day on average than leisure tourists, and like sports tourism, conventions are often why someone visits a city for the first time.
Typically, what holds many cities back in this sector is
that they don’t have a large modern facility to host conventions. That’s not an issue here. Shreveport’s challenge is, as one resident stated, “We’re more of a weekend
city. During the week, Downtown Shreveport has a bit of an identity crisis.” Therefore, this plan recommends the development of an identifiable convention center district, which are popular in many successful convention destinations. Like a theater district, a convention center
district includes a wide variety of nearby restaurants, bars and other amenities for business lunches and dinners, entertainment, and private offsite venues for meeting planners to rent for their companies and/or clients.
This is a critically important conversation for city leaders
to have based on how the meetings and conventions sector has evolved during the last two decades. Today, cities that are successfully growing their convention businesses are investing in streetscape upgrades, walkability, wayfinding, lighting, security, transportation and other strategies to create a true convention center district. The goal is to incentivize attendees to get out into the city during and after their meetings, ultimately to increase downtown foot traffic and support local businesses. Also, a vibrant convention center district humming with both locals and visitors is a key selling point for meeting planners when they’re sourcing destinations to host their events.
Long-term, there is interest within the City of Shreveport to develop a new 500-room+ convention center headquarter hotel with dedicated meeting space to capture larger corporate and association conventions. Capacity induces demand. A headquarter convention hotel of that size automatically opens up the local market to a new category of conventions that the city is now unable to engage.
Also, representatives from the casino hotels have stated they wholeheartedly welcome such a property because it will host a non-competitive type of visitor, and it brings weekday visitors to Shreveport-Bossier when the casino hotels need them more than ever.
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