Kissimmee
A Playful, Evolving Place For Business & Fun
Adjacent to Orlando and its various attractions, such as Universal Orlando, and Lake Buena Vista, the home to Walt Disney World’s Mickey, Minnie and Donald (Duck, not Trump), Kissimmee, Fla., is an exciting destination for business and social groups to congregate, according to Bonnie Brownell, manager of convention sales for the
Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We are so close to everything that a lot of meeting attendees will bring their families so that while they are in their conference or meeting, the family can enjoy the parks and then the [attendee] can join the family in the evening.”
Brownell continued, “We really do have everything here, and our Destination Services Department can help with all the details; we can put an information desk at the event and send out e-mail blasts to boost attendance.”
Along with its accessibility to the play land of Central Florida, Kissimmee has a wealth of attributes suited for meetings, many of which have recently been enhanced. As Brownell said, “You think you know Kissimmee; think again.”
New road enhancements along U.S. Interstate 4 and new thoroughfares in Central Florida have made getting around the Kissimmee area easier than ever before, Brownell said. “I recently drove from the Orlando International Airport to Kissimmee in about 20 minutes. With the new roads, getting here from the airport is so easy now.”
The area also offers numerous meeting options. “Most people are surprised at the amount of diversified property that we have here,” she said. “The largest is the
Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center with 400,000 square feet of meeting space.”
Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center can host events that are too large for a standard facility but would feel dwarfed in a convention center, said Keith Salwoski, public relations manager. With 1,406 guest rooms, the resort has multiple meeting spaces, including a 46,000-square-foot ballroom and an exhibition hall that encompasses 178,000 square feet. Renovations to the property began this year and will continue with minimal interruption to guests, Salwoski said, adding that a new sushi bar is being built and is scheduled to open near the end of the year.
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With more than a dozen courses to play, Kissimmee, Fla., is a year-round destination for golf and meetings.
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Kissimmee also has additional meeting sites that make it a more upscale destination for groups, Brownell said. “We are really beginning to attract planners of high-end, luxury meetings. We have 15 championship golf courses nearby, and Kissimmee is attracting some luxury properties, including a new hotel. The Mona Lisa Suite Hotel will be the first one of its kind in the nation.”
Opening in November, the Mona Lisa Suite Hotel will be a 240-room property with on-site meeting space and availability for groups to use the services of the Celebration Day Spa and Celebration Golf Club. “We will have the Da Vinci Boardroom, which will provide an intimate setting for 14-20 people,” said Deborah Farish, director of sales and marketing. “We will have full audio/visual capabilities along with a VIP meeting concierge on hand for all technology requests.”
In September, officials with Talon Group LLC announced plans to build a $140 million, 350-suite condo hotel in west Kissimmee that would have 11,000 square feet of meeting space. The Wyndham brand hotel is currently dubbed the Vista Royale and is set for a groundbreaking in spring 2008 and an opening in early 2010.
The project will be adjacent to a Walt Disney World project set for development along U.S. Hwy. 192 near the western entrance of Animal Kingdom theme park. This project calls for 4,500 time-share and hotel units surrounded by a retail village with restaurants, shops and small-scale entertainment venues, according to a September article in the
Orlando Business Journal.
Located five minutes from the gates of Walt Disney World,
Celebration is a master planned community designed and developed by the real estate division of the Walt Disney World Company, although Disney no longer controls the day-to-day operations. Designed to mimic neighborhoods and small towns from 1930s America, Celebration offers several places to meet.
Stetson University Center at
Celebration is a conference and training facility with state-of-the-art technology. This facility has 14 meeting rooms with 12,616 square feet of meeting space and is a venue for seminars, workshops and conferences for up to 150 people.
Located approximately 10 miles west of Kissimmee north of U.S. Interstate 4, the 720-room
Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, features more than 70,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 25,000-square-foot grand ballroom and is taking a new approach to the meetings they host. John Branciforte, director of sales and marketing, said, “We are trying to stop the ‘meetings in a box’ that everyone has been doing for years. Our meetings are designed to provide sensory explosions to the attendees. For example, we can customize music, lighting, table linens and scents to the type of meeting that is planned. If you have a high-energy-styled meeting, we might use the color red, and everything associated with that meeting would incorporate that color from the lighting to the table linens to the candy on the table.” Amenities at the ChampionsGate community also include 36 holes of golf, a clubhouse that includes a pro shop and a David Ledbetter Golf Academy.
The
Ginn Reunion Resort offers one- to three-bedroom villas and executive homes with three to eight bedrooms each. In addition, Reunion Grande Tower has several condominium units available and offers 12,000 square feet of event space. Nikki Lindgren, public relations and marketing manager, said, “One good thing about our homes is that they are good for executive board meetings. We are also popular with families. We have a five-acre water park, 54 holes of championship golf, and our signature day camp is perfect for parents who need to attend an event and not have to worry about their children.” Lindgren also said the resort has a combined total of 420 villas and private homes available and 50,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space.
The Clarion Resort Water Park and Conference Center has undergone a massive $55 million renovation, said Maria Teresa Carney, director of sales. “The property was completely gutted and rebuilt. We can guarantee that a meeting here will be memorable.” The 281 guest rooms are already open and the water park will open this fall. State-of-the-art meeting rooms with more than 5,000 square feet of flexible pre-function and meeting space are available at the conference center. Other amenities include a wedding pavilion, gazebos, high-definition televisions and high-speed Internet access.
Main Gate Properties
Kissimmee’s Main Gate area hotels and resorts are located within three to four miles of the Main Gate entrance to Walt Disney World.
The Holiday Inn Main Gate East, formerly the world’s largest Travelodge, has undergone a multimillion-dollar transformation, according to Catherine Ewer, director of marketing. “Meeting planners will certainly like what we have done to the entire hotel, and especially to the meeting rooms. The Holiday Inn Main Gate East offers more than 4,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, a brand new business center, high-speed Internet access, pre-function space, and we even changed the meeting room names to correspond with our total transformation.” The 444-room, full-service hotel features two high-rise towers.
Key Info: · Sales Tax: 7 percent
· Hotel Tax: 6 percent
· Transportation: The majority of hotels in Kissimmee provide complimentary shuttle services to Walt Disney World, Sea World, Universal Orlando and other area attractions.
· Value Season: The value season lasts year-round, but groups can find especially good rates in May and early September through January, excluding holidays, according to CVB officials. |
June brought the partial opening of the Orlando Sun Resort by Lexington. Located 1 1/2 miles from Walt Disney World, the former Hyatt Orlando Resort closed in 2003 and reopened this year under the new name and with redesigned offerings, according to Tim Hemphill, executive director of sales and marketing. The property will have a total of 917 guest rooms when renovations are completed. Currently, approximately half of the guest rooms are completed and ready for guests with the remainder scheduled to open by the end of the year. “We are excited about what we have to offer,” Hemphill said. “We have three restaurants on property, Salsa lessons every Friday night, four lushly landscaped pools and free wireless Internet throughout the property.” The resort will have the second highest number of guest rooms and the third largest meeting space in the Kissimmee area with 75,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor space, including a 13,000-square-foot ballroom and 22 meeting rooms.
The nearby
Radisson Resort Orlando - Celebration has 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space, which has recently been transformed to suit the modern business traveler, and updates and upgrades can be found in all guest rooms and public spaces, said Steve Crist, director of sales and marketing. “We have 718 wonderful guest rooms and an in-house magician who can perform for an opening reception or a closing dinner. We provide complimentary shuttles to all local convention centers as well as to the theme parks.”
Another Clarion property, the Clarion Hotel Main Gate has 198 rooms and one meeting room. “Our 768-square-foot meeting space is currently undergoing renovation along with the adjacent restaurant and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year,” explained Rose Marie Young, sales manager.
Catering to the meeting attendee who brings the family is the Seralago Hotel and Suites Main Gate East, said Terri O’Neal, director of sales and marketing, adding that the property has 614 guest rooms, including 110 suites. “We have 1,215 square feet of space, which is perfect for smaller events.”
