Visit Indy to cut employee hours amid forced events lull
The tourism bureau’s 62 employees will see their work weeks cut to four days through at least April.
The tourism bureau’s 62 employees will see their work weeks cut to four days through at least April.
The race—rescheduled for Aug. 23—is on an otherwise open weekend in the city’s summer event calendar, which could fill hotel rooms at a time they would otherwise have been empty.
The governor also signed legislation that will eventually put more money into the state’s unemployment trust fund, a move that comes as the coronavirus outbreak has led to a jump in unemployment claims.
Officials say no events have been canceled locally, but groups—including the NCAA and Visit Indy—are watching the news and weighing their options.
Visit Indy, which isn’t involved in the Pan Am negotiations, is in “somewhat of a holding pattern until we have the exact details finalized and presented to us,” Vice President Chris Gahl said.
Visit Indy has held preliminary talks with the NFL about the city’s hosting the three-day event as soon as 2024.
While the city and Kite Realty Group discuss a slower development timetable for the massive hospitality project, White Lodging said it is holding off on plans for another downtown hotel “until we figure out what’s going on at Pan Am Plaza.”
Indianapolis is making moves to host the NFL Draft in coming years, but it’s unlikely the city will aggressively pursue it until a slew of previously scheduled events have occurred.
A record 28.8 million people visited the Indianapolis in 2017, generating a $5.4 billion economic impact, according to figures released Wednesday afternoon by Visit Indy as part of its State of Tourism event.
The city’s tourism agency plans to ask the Marion County Capital Improvement Board of Managers for an increase in funding, but is planning a slightly smaller overall budget in 2019.
Tourism bureau Visit Indy has spent about $60,000 on advertising over the past two weeks targeting Ohio State and Northwestern fans in Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago.
Hospitality industry observers say this is far from an ideal time for Kite—a publicly traded real estate investment trust specializing in shopping centers—to veer outside its core business and tackle what would be a risky and colossal project that easily could cost more than $600 million.
Guest host Lindsey Erdody (in for Mason King) talks with IBJ reporters Hayleigh Colombo and Anthony Schoettle about the public-private project, the city’s convention business and what remains unknown about the Pan Am Plaza project.
The Capital Improvement Board has selected a Kite Realty Group plan from among three proposals in its effort to expand the city’s convention capacity. The CIB is expected to vote Friday to move the project forward.
Since its first iteration opened in 1972, it’s undergone four major expansions. The last one, completed in 2011, increased its size to six city blocks and more than 566,600 square feet of exhibit space—or 745,210, if you include nearby Lucas Oil Stadium.
Whether Seattle-based Gen Con and local officials can now reach an understanding on technology could spell the difference between Indianapolis’ hanging onto its most prized convention and potentially losing it to another city.
A study commissioned by Visit Indy says officials are counting on a new downtown mega-hotel to generate nearly half its own business without relying on conventions.
Indianapolis officials say they’re up for the challenge of hosting the eighth annual College Football Playoff National Championship in January 2022, even as they’re planning six other big sporting events that take place within a 13-month stretch.
Visit Indy signed a deal to host the American Wind Energy Association Windpower Conference & Exhibition June 7-10, 2021, in the convention center.
Local hospitality officials are expecting the 50th edition of the annual gaming event to be one of the biggest conventions the city has ever hosted.