NATCHEZ — Conventions have several requisites when it comes to booking conferences — a nice area, a large meeting space and hotels in close proximity.

Natchez has all of these.

And the Country Inn and Suites and Natchez Convention Center are advertised as a package to potential convention clients by a privately-run management group.

The city entered into a contract with New Orleans Hotel Consultants, which took effect in Oct. 1, 2007.

Housing the two entities under one management roof has helped bring in major conferences, group officials say.

The National Guard Association for Mississippi will have its annual conference in Natchez in 2009.

Col. Roy Robinson, executive director for the guard association, said having the hotel and the convention center in such close proximity was a major selling point.

“We need facilities for meeting spaces and parties and we need to have lodging within walking distance,” he said. “The way it’s put together in one package with facilities all around makes it a prime attraction to soldiers attending the conference and any spouses that attend with them.”

He said booking the conference was very simple — booking hotel rooms and meeting space at the same time.

Walter Tipton, director of the convention center, said that’s what the management group is all about.

“It’s great to be able to make one phone call,” Tipton said. “It makes sense to put the management of meeting space and hotel under one management team.

“That’s sort of the genesis of putting the facilities under one management.”

The three-day conference will bring between 1,300 and 1,500 people to town, Robinson said.

The Mississippi Medical Association is looking to come to Natchez for its 2010 conference.

Charmain Kanosky, the executive director for the medical association, said while a contract hasn’t been signed yet, his group wants to come to Natchez.

She said the decision to come to Natchez was “easy, it’s a beautiful city with a lot of activities with some new meeting space.”

What it costs

But the two-in one deal that may be attracting conferences doesn’t come without a cost to the City of Natchez.

City Clerk Donnie Holloway said the city pays the management group $20,000 a month to manage the convention center.

“They maintain the convention center, they pay all the bills at the convention center, the city does not pay that,” Holloway said.

Before New Orleans Hotel Consultants took over the convention center, the city paid all operational costs, plus salaries for eight employees now paid by the consultant group.

In the end, Holloway said the contract with the group is currently saving the city money.

Success so far?

In 2007 — before the management group took over — three conferences brought 1,000 or more people into town. In 2008 — when the management group was in charge — four conferences were booked to bring 1,000 or more people to town.

In 2007, three conferences brought between 500 and 1,000 visitors. In 2008, eight conferences bringing 500 to 1,000 people to town have been booked.

Tipton said the management group targets large conferences.

The number of smaller conferences booked has gone down between 2007 and 2008, but Tipton said the year isn’t over yet and those numbers may level out again.

“We’ll probably book one or two more conventions by the end of the year,” he said.

Conventions are already being booked for 2009, too.

In January, Delta Sigma Theta will bring 600 people and Natchez Council for Arts and Culture will bring 1,700 people.

The Mississippi Association for Water and Pollution Control is a 300-person conference that will stay in Natchez hotels for four nights in February.

The National Association for Social Workers will bring in nearly 400 people in March and the Mississippi Society for Gastroenterology Nurses will bring in 130 people in April.

Also in April, 600 people will be in Natchez for a Key Club conference.

In November, 1,000 people will come for the William Grant Still Conference.

It’s the management group’s job to bring these conventions to Natchez, said Jill Alexander, who works in marketing and sales for New Orleans Hotel Consultants.

Alexander said the best way to land these conventions is to do it in person.

“We have made it our mission every month to have face to face meetings (with potential clients,)” she said. “Our best was is word of mouth.”

Alexander said she and Jennifer Paradise, sales director for the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau, go on trips to conventions and businesses and have good successes.

“We high five each other after every meeting because we’re booking almost every one,” Alexander said.

Kanosky said she found the face-to-face conference with management group representatives to be helpful when she made the decision to bring the Mississippi Medical Association to town.

“We were delighted to see some representatives from the convention center,” Kanosky said. “They were certainly instrumental at winning that business.”

Beyond the convention center

As the main benefactor of the New Orleans Hotel Consultants’ contract, the Country Inn & Suites is experiencing steady occupancy.

The hotel’s general manager Patricia Lozon said she estimated 70 percent of the hotel’s business is convention driven.

“For us that’s great,” she said. “When there’s a convention in town we’re seeing a lot of that business.”

And while the Country Inn is contractually poised to benefit from the city’s convention crowd, they are not the only hotel seeing a bump in business.

The Hampton Inn & Suites’ front desk manager Lakesha Gooden said the Hampton is also accommodating high numbers of convention-goers.

Gooden said occupants in town for conventions account for approximately 50 percent of the hotel’s business.

“It keeps our business rather steady,” she said.

Aside from convention business both Gooden and Lozon said their facilities get regular boost in occupancy from groups booking blocks of rooms.

“We get a lot of people in wedding parties and things like that,” Gooden said.

Having the hotel open is partially responsible for an increase in tourism related sales because having more options opens up Natchez to a larger and more diverse group of leisure travelers, Paradise said.

“New is what makes headlines,” Paradise said. “The headline may read ‘Grand opening in Natchez,’ but the tourists are remembering that dinner at Pearl Street Pasta, those Crape Myrtles down Washington Street, and that charming breakfast at the Wensel House,” Paradise said.

And that is exactly what Alicia Wilson is banking on.

Last week, Wilson moved her restaurant Soul Heaven from Fourth Street to where the City Café used to be.

Right before the Mississippi Adult Education convention came to town this week, Tipton got in touch with Wilson.

Wilson said Tipton invited her to bring some brochures for her restaurant to the convention center for the convention participants to pick up.

“I’ve been packed,” Wilson said ever since she took up Tipton’s invitation.

She said business will also pick up vastly with the antique show coming into town later this month, and Wilson is also benefiting from the people from the convention staying at the downtown hotels, she said.

“I’m getting the traffic from all the different hotels,” she said.