Paediatric group signs two-year deal
John Bermingham
Province
The steel skeleton of the new Vancouver Convention Centre rises along the waterfront in Coal Harbour yesterday afternoon. The centre is already taking advanced bookings. Photograph by : Nick Procaylo, The Province
The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre has bagged a number of big-name conventions for its expanded facility.
The U.S.-based Paediatric Academic Societies has become the first group to sign a multi-year deal for the new facility. PAS plans to stage its annual meetings here in 2010 and 2014.
Each meeting will attract 7,000 visitors to Vancouver and generate $10 million in business for the local economy.
Dave Gazley, Tourism Vancouver meeting and convention sales vice-president, called the deal a “signature piece of business” for the centre. He said a PAS member came to Vancouver in September to scout for locations and fell in love with the city.
The client was attracted by the integrated services being offered — hotels, flights and transportation — in a convenient package.
“We’ve got several groups that are definite now for the expanded centre,” Gazley said yesterday. “And we have a huge number more we are working on to confirm for the city.”
They are professional-group conventions, ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 delegates.
The convention centre expansion will triple the facility’s size to 500,000 square feet when it opens in late 2008.
Tourism Vancouver estimates that the city loses out on $150 million annually because of its limited size and Gazley said the bigger centre will put Vancouver in play for new business.
“It really helps us talk to more groups than we have in the past,” he said. “This will really put us into a new ballpark. It’s going to be one of the nicest convention centres in the world.”
The $615-million expansion is supporting 6,700 construction jobs, but is expected to attract $229 million in annual delegate spending, and create 7,500 new jobs.
According to Tourism B.C., there were 10 per cent fewer delegates to the VCEC last year, compared to 2005.
Figures show VCEC had 211,717 delegate days, down from 235,545 in 2005, and 250,000 in 2004.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
