Unfathomable just a decade ago, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is trimming demands on hospitality packages in a scramble
to fill vacancies and preserve what IMS officials call "a major profit center."
The convention bureau has shelved its plan to attract a full-service hotel and instead will boost spending on tourism marketing.
Tickets were snapped up fast for this year’s Final Four, almost assuring a record economic impact for Indianapolis. But two
more wins for Purdue or Butler could bring down projected visitor spending.
Scholars Inn’s growth engine is its wholesale bakery, which distributes granola and other
fresh products across state lines thanks
to deals with
partners like Kroger.
Turner Woodard has purchased the historic Canterbury Hotel on South Illinois Street. He said the hotel fits his vision of
turning around properties and making them profitable.
The expanded service shuttling air travelers and airport workers to and from Indianapolis International Airport began Feb.
3, to the newly opened Fairfield Inn & Suites at West and Washington streets.
The 1,000-room J.W. Marriott isn’t even finished and support already is emerging for a second downtown hotel that
would rival it in size.
Once considered a destination only eight months of the year, Indianapolis—with its compact downtown and indoor walkways—is
emerging as a convention powerhouse even during cold weather.
The Fairfield Inn & Suites on West Washington Street downtown will open Wednesday. The hotel is the first of four comprising
the 1,600-room Marriott Place project to welcome guests.
Conrad Indianapolis and West Baden Springs Hotel have been named to Condé Nast Traveler’s
Gold List 2010.
Groups that committed in 2009 to hold meetings in Indianapolis in future years booked a total of nearly 688,000 hotel-room
nights, a number that exceeded ICVA’s goal by 5 percent.
Two walkways that will connect to the new Marriott Place hotel will extend downtown’s network of skywalk and underground pedestrian
paths to a total of 12 hotels with more than 4,700 rooms–the most of any downtown in the United States.
At issue is a dispute pitting NFL players against owners, and owners against one another over how league
revenue should be divided. If it isn’t resolved, the 2011 season could be shortened, delayed or canceled.
The contest offers businesses a chance to promote something about themselves that might be of interest
to hotel guests in the area.
A symbolic topping-off ceremony early this month to celebrate a milestone on the massive JW Marriott hotel project can’t
hide the anxiety felt within the construction industry.
The show held in Indianapolis Dec. 3-4 is picking up speed much faster than event organizers and local
convention and tourism officials expected. But the nation’s biggest motorsports trade show, Performance
Racing Industry Show, is considering competing with the local show head-on in 2010.
The 34-story hotel, the city’s largest, is scheduled to open in 2011.
Hendricks County’s moves to entice a developer to build a conference hotel in Plainfield could further crimp plans
for
a
hotel attached to the new Indianapolis International Airport terminal.
The Hendricks County Convention and Visitors Bureau said Monday that it is asking for proposals to develop a full-service convention hotel on up to 18 acres in Plainfield at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Highway 267.
A little more than six months before the 2010 NCAA men’s Final Four is set to tip off at Lucas Oil Stadium, the NCAA
has not yet finalized a rental deal for the facility. While officials for the NCAA and Local Organizing Committee,
the group charged with operating the event in Indianapolis, downplay any problems, sports business experts say it is unusual
not to have an agreement pinned down in the months leading up to the event.
