An exchange between friends re downtown
LETTER: “I saw this letter on your site this morning. Clearly this isn’t even close to the truth (“….say 200 guests per night at the Marriott, many of whom won’t spend a dime outside the hotel.. “) More likely that few hotel customers wouldn’t spend funds outside the hotel. It would be nice if NewsLanc could attract a more reasonable group of people submitting info and not have so much of the lunatic fringe.”
RESPONSE: As a business traveler and convention attendee, I must include myself as part of the “lunatic fringe.” In fact, I wrote the commentary.
If people come as tourists, I agree that they will spend money downtown. But when attending conventions, people tend to remain within the premises for meals and meetings. They are there for a purpose, and the purpose is not sight seeing.
As a business traveler, I will stay at a hotel, have the complimentary breakfast buffet or grab breakfast later on the road. As a hotelier, I understand this to be common practice.
The Brunswick has never been successful in attracting many tourists to downtown. Tourist attractions, at least until very recently, are in the suburbs and ex-urban areas. Furthermore, so are most of industry and commerce.
The purpose of the article was to extol luxury condos; not to put down the Marriott. Time will tell within a year about the Marriott and the Convention Center economic impact on downtown.
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