Convention centre supporters respond to call for rejection
Posted Mar 19, 2010 05:38:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Hotel Association of Nova Scotia is defending plans for a new World Trade Centre in downtown Halifax.
On Thursday, the Coalition to Save the View from Citadel Hill urged the province to kill the project, arguing the $300 million centre would be a waste of money in light of statistics that show convention business is down across North America.
But the Hotel Association says without a new trade centre, Halifax is losing millions of dollars in potential business.
Opponents of the new trade centre say it’s the worst project ever proposed for Halifax. They claim convention business is down the last 10 years while convention space is increasing – but Jeff Ransome of the Hotel Association of Nova Scotia says because of the size of our current trade centre, we’re losing business.
“If you look at our competing cities you’ll see they have facilities that are three or four times our size,” said Ransome.
He admits the recession has affected the convention industry, but says business is turning around.
“Our goal is to try and grow by three to five percent, year-over-year. I’m expecting 2011 to grow 15 percent,” he said. “So (the turnaround) is pretty dramatic.”
Ransome says the city has lost some 70 major conferences in the last three years because our convention centre’s too small.
