Meeting and convention planners have been able to get some great deals in the past couple of years for their companies and associations. Those planners who still had jobs, anyway.

The group meetings and conventions industry took major hits, first from 9/11 and then from an economy that triggered nationwide penny pinching. Among the first things companies cut were gatherings at cushy resorts and the in-house people whose job it was to plan them. So competition for the lingering meetings business was tough, and hotels and resorts offered lower prices and deals.

Lee and Collier counties were among those that felt the pinch. In Lee, group meetings and conventions represent about 20 percent of the county's $2 billion tourism industry. In Collier, meetings represent about 5.5 percent of total tourism. Business accounts for nearly 19 percent of the industry, which generated an average in 2002 and 2003 exceeding $872 million.

"It got to the point where companies didn't even want their names listed, because they were worried stockholders would think they were having a party during these difficult times," says Carlos Cabrera, vice president and managing director of Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa.

But now the tide seems to be turning. Those in the industry, however, view the turnaround with cautious optimism in a still-uncertain national economy.

Less Demand, More Supply

While the number of meetings dropped, competition for them increased in Southwest Florida's market as new hotels and resorts opened.

"There's so much excess inventory," says Kerry Mitruska, sales and marketing director for the Registry Resort & Club, Edgewater Beach Hotel, and Naples Grande Golf Club. "In this area, we've got the brand-new Hyatt, we've got the Ritz-Carlton golf lodge, and a number of smaller boutique properties that have opened in the last two to three years."

In addition to the Hyatt Regency, Ritz-Carlton, which already had a beachfront property in Naples, built the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort Naples in Tiburón. The Marco Island Marriott Resort, Golf Club and Spa underwent major renovations, including the addition of a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and a 24,000-square-foot health spa. The Registry Resort & Club also has had extensive renovations. New competition also cropped up in Key Biscayne, Sarasota and Miami Beach.

"The buyer has really had the ability to dictate to the hotels the pricing, not only in room rates, but food and beverage, et cetera," says Mitruska. "Hotels have had to make some very difficult decisions in the past couple of years and take business at a lower price point. But it was really a matter of doing that or not having business at all."

Sally Cole, manager of national conferences for National Regulatory Services, a Connecticut-based consulting company to the financial-services industry, saw hotels providing extras to entice her groups, such as blocks of rooms at a discounted rate, complimentary airport transportation or gratis equipment for the conferences. She arranges a number of small meetings annually as well as two major yearly conferences, one of which took place in April at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point.

"The hotels were very pleased to give us as many concessions as we liked," she says. "We have a contract we present to hotels; and nine times out of 10, the things we ask for, the hotels will agree to."

But she sees that changing. "After 9/11, hotels were very keen to get any kind of business, but this year they're getting back on track," she says.

In downtown Fort Myers, it's the lack of hotel rooms that has affected convention business, says Rose Rundle, general manager of the Harborside Event Center. The immediate area lost about 400 rooms when the former Ramada Inn started undergoing renovation last year to become a mixed use of hotel and condo space. "We changed our marketing plan," Rundle says.

The center began pursuing meetings that would attract guests who could drive in for an event and go home the same day. And almost a year ago, officials changed the facility's name from Harborside Convention Center to the Harborside Event Center. The new direction has paid off.

"Attendance has been really good," Rundle says. Meeting planners, she says, are cutting back on expenses for amenities such as decorating and audio-visual equipment.

"It feels to us that business has picked up for us substantially this year," says Lance Wieland, president of Global Events Group, a Maine company that manages meetings and conventions. "As the economy has improved, people have more need to hire individuals and train them, you start having a more competitive job market and, you offer greater incentives to stay with you. For a number of reasons, as the economy improves, the meetings and incentives business improves."

Growing Competition

Collier and Lee compete not only with each other for group meetings and conventions, but with other Florida locations and with comparable areas throughout the country. Neither county has a convention center that includes accommodations.

In Lee, which can handle groups of up to 500 to 600, those that do the most group-meetings business are South Seas Resort, Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa, and Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa, says D.T. Minich, executive director of the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau. In Collier, where the Greater Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau is only about a year old, major venues include the Registry Resort & Club, the two Ritz-Carlton resorts in Naples, the Hilton on Marco, the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club, and the Marco Island Marriott. The Marriott is the county's largest convention space, with 727 guest rooms and 60,000 square feet of meeting area.

"Our competition is primarily other Ritz-Carltons in Florida and luxury independent hotels," says Michael McMahon, marketing and sales director for the two Naples Ritz-Carltons. "Geographically, before people come down to look into our region, they're zeroing in on Arizona, Southern California, Hawaii, the Caribbean or Florida." In Florida, prospects consider resorts in Palm Beach and the new Ritz-Carlton in Key Biscayne in addition to the Naples Ritz.

But when attendees are from all over the country, decisions revolve less around geography than a suitable meeting place. Airfares and local taxes can sway a decision, says Wieland, who arranged the national Dynamics of Disability convention in March at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point. "But for the most part, clients are going to look on a national basis at what property has the right space, the right rates and the level of service they want to purchase," he says.

Amenities are also key, which is why several resorts have undergone additions and renovations.

Golf is still number one, says Cabrera. But spas have become increasingly important, he adds.

"That's almost the price of entry nowadays," says Mark Vaughan, marketing director for the Marco Island Marriott.

Unlike some companies and associations, which work with firms like Wieland's Global Events Group, the Magnetic Resonance Manager Society handles its own arrangements in order to minimize costs. Before choosing Sanibel Harbour Resort last spring, the group surveyed members to find out where they wanted to go. Society president David Kelly researched options online before contacting resort sales people.

The organization's conventions usually rotate locations. But after noting that attendance drops at conventions on the U.S. West Coast and rises during Florida conventions, Kelly broke with tradition and went from Tampa last year to Fort Myers' Sanibel Harbour this year-and might again next year, he adds.

"If you hook up with a good place, like Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa, they have conference planners there that will help guide you, so working together with them, this year it went off perfectly," he says.

Focus on Value

The conventions and group meetings business is coming back, but there are differences from the glory days of the late 1990s and 2000. Most want to get more for their money, which translates to groups that do more work and less play, and shorten the length of their stays. They also have smaller meetings-which is a boon to smaller properties.

"It's still not like money is no object. People still want value," says Cabrera.

Many just don't spend as much as they used to, says Brian Holly, managing director of Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa. "The shift in all of them has been toward more value-added packages."

Incentive meetings, those all-expense-paid trips companies give to top performers, are still much rarer than a few years ago.

"Incentive business is the kind that any resort would love to have, because the company is paying for people to come play golf, go to the spa, have unbelievable receptions. That's the best type of business, as opposed to pharmaceutical educational seminars where they come here and they're in meeting rooms all day long," says Cabrera. "They are showing up more than last year," says Holly. "It's cautious, sort of dipping the toe in the water."

Groups are booking closer to the event and reserving fewer rooms.

"Clients are trying to be more conservative with their room blocks so they don't have liability for attrition charges. We're seeing more meetings, more overall room nights, but also more small meetings," says Mitruska.

Safety concerns are also a consideration now.

"There are more groups coming in that want to see our security plans," says Holly. "We've actually included some of that in our sales kits, because we know the Fortune 500 companies are going to ask about it."

The industry is starting to recover in Southwest Florida, but the past few years have proven just how tenuous it can be.

"Hopefully, there aren't any geopolitical issues or anything that affects the economy too drastically, because it's a fragile comeback so far," says Holly. "Anything that shakes the consumer confidence could result in a downturn in corporate business. They pulled the plug very quickly after 9/11 and that conduit is just now starting to come back."

And it has ramifications for the whole region, adds Vaughan.

"We employ a lot of folks, create a lot of tax dollars for the county, local vendors and restaurants depend on our success, as well. So it's good to see things taking an uptick, not just for us, but for everybody in the county." he says.