Two weeks before the International Boarding & Pet Services Association was set to bring its annual conference and trade show to the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront, Hurricane Irma ripped through the area, leaving the hotel unavailable.
“The Hyatt was hit hard, and it couldn’t pass inspection,” said Carmen Rustenbeck, executive director and founder of the association. It had planned to bring a 250-member group to Jacksonville during the first week of October.
It was one of four conventions canceled because of the storm, according to Visit Jacksonville, the city’s contracted tourism agency.
“If we could’ve stayed in Jacksonville, we would’ve,” Rustenbeck said. “We were looking forward to it.”
With two weeks to find a new facility, Rustenbeck said the hotel and Visit Jacksonville helped the group relocate to the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort.
“They not only stepped up to the plate, but they got the Omni to match dollar-for-dollar what the Hyatt was going to charge us,” she said.
Rustenbeck’s story is one of the anecdotes the agency presented to the Duval County Tourist Development Council at its Nov. 16 quarterly meeting, where it highlighted activities from October 2016 through the end of September.
During that time, Visit Jacksonville said it secured 154 conventions, resulting in nearly 79,000 room nights at area hotels.
It said those groups generated an estimated $37.3 million economic impact.
Monica Smith, Visit Jacksonville’s vice president of convention sales and service, told the council that location is the No. 1 reason groups go elsewhere, saying there is a perception that Jacksonville has nothing to offer.
That often changes, she said, when convention planners visit.
“When we can get planners to visit the city, they are pleasantly surprised by the number of things to see and do,” Smith told the council.
When groups did pass on Jacksonville, most instead chose Orlando, Tampa, Sandestin, Daytona Beach or Chicago.
Like 75 percent of the conferences Visit Jacksonville said it secured last year, Rustenbeck’s Las Cruces, New Mexico-based association meeting was new to Jacksonville.
“We didn’t know a lot about the area,” said Rustenbeck, who acknowledged she didn’t think Jacksonville would stack up to other Florida cities bidding for the business.
Visit Jacksonville gave what she called “the premier tour of Jacksonville and everything it has to offer,” adding the group “was sold from Day One.”
At the TDC meeting, Smith said most of the complaints her staff hears from groups that stay Downtown center on the Jacksonville Landing. She said it seemed to be the logical dining and entertainment destination for guests, but that its current state makes it less inviting.
In a follow-up interview, Smith said Jacksonville also could use a hotel connected to a convention center, more affordable transportation to accommodate large groups and another resort-style hotel at the beaches.
The agency’s presentation comes as the city is finalizing three contracts to continue their working relationship.
One is a $2.5 million marketing contract, another is a $2 million convention sales and services contract for the next year. Both are five-year commitments.
The sides also are wrapping up negotiations on a three-year contract for Visit Jacksonville to operate the city’s tourism bureau at $315,000 annually.
City Council President and TDC Chair Anna Lopez Brosche said the agency has “accomplished a lot over the last year,” despite losing convention business to other cities.
“I’m confident in what they’re doing,” she said.
For the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, the agency says it has secured 16 groups. Another 64 have reservations beyond 2018.
Rustenbeck said her conference won’t return to the East Coast for a few years, but that “Jacksonville will be our first choice, hands down.”
Visit Jacksonville also is searching for its next CEO after Paul Astleford announced his retirement in October.
Bill Prescott, chairman of the Visit Jacksonville board, said the job would be posted in December, with candidate interviews possibly taking place in the spring.