Tourism leaders said Charlotte continues to set records for visitor spending and hotel bookings, but uptown still needs more hotel rooms.
Channel 9 anchor Scott Wickersham learned Monday that tourism leaders said Charlotte is poised for a hotel boom.
The city needs more hotels to attract big conventions that may want to come to Charlotte but just can’t find the available rooms.
The Charlotte region continues to attract tourists at a record pace.
In the fiscal year that ended in June, hotel demand grew by 5.5 percent, and 6.35 million rooms were sold, which is a new record.
Hotels are reaping the benefits as room rates grew by 11.8 percent, which equals an extra $68 million.
“When rates are high and occupancy is high, developers come in hard and fast and that’s what we are seeing right now,” said Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Association representative Tom Murray.
Murray said uptown alone has 1,200 rooms in the works, such as the Embassy Suites across from the Nascar Hall of Fame.
Two hundred-fifty rooms are set to open next October. It will help the city book big conventions.
But Murray said another 2,000 rooms are being talked about as developers try to finalize their plans.
“We could clearly take a few thousand more rooms uptown. We are just losing so much business because we’re full,” Murray said.
Sid Smith with Charlotte Area Hotel Association, said demand is being driven by conventions and trade shows but also strong business travel and visitors from the Carolinas.
It all brought in $4.8 billion for Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in 2014.
“We’re the largest travel and tourism destination in North Carolina, and I don’t think a lot of people know that,” Smith said.
And while full rooms are a good problem to have, the CRVA isn’t just thinking about hotels. In a recent survey, visitors gave Charlotte high scores for safety and cleanliness as well as transportation and walkability, but availability of parking scored the lowest.
Parking is something planners will need to think about as the city continues to grow.
The entire Charlotte region has about 4,000 hotel rooms under construction or planned right now, with 1,200 of those uptown Charlotte.
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