The committee attempting to lure the 2012 Republican National Convention to Salt Lake City has secured commitments from approximately two dozen hotels and lodges in the immediate Park City area to house GOP delegations should the political bash be awarded to Utah.
The number of Park City-area lodges that have told the host committee they would set aside rooms for the Republicans appears to be 22 or 24, according to figures provided by the committee and the local lodging association.
Scott Beck, the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the lodges have indicated they would make approximately 3,900 rooms available in the Park City area, or just more than one-fifth of the 18,000 rooms the committee is attempting to secure within a one-hour drive of EnergySolutions Arena, where the convention would be staged.
“Park City embodies the individual spirit of Utah and the West,” Beck said, calling Park City “vital” to Salt Lake City’s bid for the convention.
Beck declined to name the Park City-area hotels that have said they would house delegates. The president of the Park City Area Lodging Association, Jeff Bennett, also refused to list the properties. Bennett said, though, the bloc totals 89 percent of the available rooms at the places that have shown interest. He said the hotels and lodges represent a “wide range of properties throughout the greater Park City area.” They have a combined 124,000 square feet of meeting space, he said.
The Republican National Committee would assign certain state delegations to each of the hotels. Divvying up the rooms would take place much closer to the convention itself. The hotels serve as the home base for the delegations. Though the convention would be held in Salt Lake City, the hotels where the delegates are staying would be buzzing as well with politicians, journalists and political activists.
“Literally every hotel that was on our target list responded,” Beck said.
The convention is scheduled the week of Aug. 27. Salt Lake City is competing with Phoenix and Tampa, Fla., for the right to host the convention. Beck said 35,000 people are projected to attend the Republican National Convention in 2012.
The Republicans plan to send a team to Utah from April 5 to April 7 to evaluate Salt Lake City’s ability to host the event. Beck said the Republican team is expected to spend an afternoon in Park City during the April visit.
Details of the afternoon in Park City have not been discussed publicly. It is likely that the evaluation team would stop at some of the hotels and lodges that have pledged rooms to the convention.
Park City’s tourism boosters normally like to give tours of the area to meeting and convention planners who are considering Park City as a location. Stops would probably include places like Main Street, the mountain resorts and the Utah Olympic Park.
If the Republicans choose Salt Lake City, Park City’s economy could enjoy a late-summer spike in activity that may rival the typically much more lucrative ski season. Hotel occupancy in Park City normally starts to dip from its summertime highs at about the time the convention would be scheduled, and numbers in industries that rely heavily on visitors also start to trail off at that time as well.
Bennett said business from the convention could give the lodging industry a “tremendous boost.” He said room rates would be “competitive,” but he predicts they would not rival those charged during the week between Christmas and New Year’s and during the Sundance Film Festival, periods when rates are normally at their highest.
“I think it could be terribly exciting,” Bennett said.
The Republican delegations that would be housed in the Park City area would be staying in one of Utah’s reliably Democratic places. Park City voters typically support Democrats in federal, state and county elections.