Six days before the deadline for hotel reservations, the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI; Washington, DC) has secured lower rates from 39 of NPE2009’s 66 show hotels. Negotiating on a hotel-by-hotel basis and getting rates cut an average of 14%, NPE2009’s housing contractor, Expovision, lowered the per night average from $263 to $226. The deadline for advance reservations to NPE2009 (June 22-26, McCormick Place, Chicago) comes this week, Thursday, May 14.
In a release, Gene Sanders, SPI vice president of trade shows, says the discounts are another part of the cost savings SPI is using to lure attendees and exhibitors to its triennial show in some difficult economic times. “We understand that this unprecedented economic situation calls for innovative measures to encourage everyone to take part in NPE2009,” Sanders says. Make sure to visit the NPE2009 Housing Site, which includes a list of the 66 participating hotels.
According to the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, the city boasts more than 30,000 rooms in the central business district, with over 100,000 in the metro area. The bureau says more than 20 properties have been built or reflagged and renovated in downtown Chicago over the past seven years, with an estimated 3000 new and varied hotel rooms to be added by 2009.
The hotels have faced a diminishing amount of trade show and convention visitors to McCormick place, with the total number of events in 2008 down to 44 compared to 74 in 2001. Over that same time, the number of delegates dropped from 1.3 million in 2001 to just over 960,000 last year. In the last NPE year of 2006, there were 63 events at McCormick, drawing almost 1.2 million delegates, and 12.6 million net square feet of show space occupied. —[email protected]
