Shreveport-Bossier City
New Meeting Site Unveil 21st Century Boomtown
Located across the Red River from each other in the northwest corner of Louisiana, Shreveport and Bossier City share everything from rollicking music and food festivals and family-friendly attractions to casinos, meeting venues and hotels.
“Our gaming, family attractions and festivals, along with our full-fledged film industry—we’ve filmed Premonition, The Guardian, Blonde Ambition and many more movies here—have created a buzz and allowed us to showcase what a great Southern destination Shreveport-Bossier City is for visitors, business travelers and conventioneers,” said Brandy Claiborne, vice president of communications for the
Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau (CTB).
New hotels are abounding in the sister cities of Shreveport and Bossier City, thanks in large part to the success of the new
Shreveport Convention Center, which opened in 2006. In fact, with nearly 10 new hotels scheduled to open over the next year, local tourism officials are declaring this a boom time for Shreveport-Bossier City. “The hotel business in Shreveport-Bossier City is booming,” said Erin Pyles, CTB communications coordinator, explaining that more than 1,500 hotel rooms will join the cities’ existing 8,400 rooms for a total of nearly 10,000 hotel rooms by next fall. “With the recent completion and grand opening of the new full-service Hilton Shreveport in downtown Shreveport, other hotel properties are hoping to cash in on Shreveport-Bossier City’s economic growth as well.”
CTB officials announced that the new hotels planned for the area include two Marriott-branded properties for Bossier City: a Springhill Suites to be located at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs and another to be located at the Louisiana Boardwalk. Both are set to open next year. Bossier City will also welcome a new Holiday Inn in the near future.
In Shreveport, six new properties are slated to open next year. A Holiday Inn Express and Candlewood Suites are both set to open in the spring, while a Staybridge Suites is scheduled for a fall completion. A Hilton Garden Inn is slated to open its doors in the spring of 2008, while a Homewood Suites will open later that year. A Cambria Suites, owned by Choice Hotels International, is set to open by January 2009.
Supporting the need for the new hotels is the area’s new convention center. “We are fortunate to now have the 350,000-square-foot
Shreveport Convention Center, which has allowed us to go after larger groups,” Claiborne said, emphasizing that the destination lies on the border of several states and has convenient drive-in and air access.
Debbie Foshee, director of sales and marketing for the SMG-managed convention center, agreed. “We are getting a lot of business from Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi, and we are handling a lot of association business that went to New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina.” Foshee said she credits much of the center’s success to its friendly staff and its location in a smaller market. “When a big group comes to Shreveport-Bossier City, it’s likely they are our only big show that week. So, they are ‘king’ of the market. We can really cater to them,” she explained.
The convention center, located in the heart of downtown Shreveport, features a 100,000-square-foot, column-free exhibit hall capable of dividing into three separate halls and 11 loading docks. The center’s second level includes an 18,000-square-foot grand ballroom that can be subdivided into four rooms and accommodate up to 2,000 people for a general session. An additional 10 meeting rooms, each approximately 1,600 square feet, are located on the second level along with a large multipurpose boardroom.
Foshee said the facility’s first year and a half was a successful one. “We are booking trade shows, meetings and conventions, and banquets.”
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The skyline of Shreveport, La., lights up against the waters of the Red River. According to destination officials, the city’s growing hospitality offerings are also sparking new interest from groups.
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Of the groups using the center, BWI Companies Inc., a turf supplier, held the first major event there and, according to the event’s meeting planner, the group is set to meet at the center again this year. “In 2006, BWI moved its annual EXPO to Shreveport to the new Shreveport Convention Center,” said Jana Swanson, BWI EXPO planner. “We were a little nervous about all the ‘new,’ but everything went great. The staff was very accommodating, and the convention center itself was a hit with our customers—and the food was delicious.”
Attached to the center is the 313-room, $52 million Hilton Shreveport, which opened in June. The hotel features 1,960 square feet of flexible meeting space with high-speed Internet access. According to Director of Sales and Marketing Marianne McConathy-Nelson, guest room amenities include complimentary high-speed Internet access, a 32-inch flat panel cable TV, and the Hilton Serenity Bed. “Having a convention hotel makes Shreveport-Bossier City an even more attractive meetings destination for groups,” Claiborne said.
Located on the banks of the Red River near the Hilton, Bossier City’s 270,000-square-foot arena, the
CenturyTel Center, can accommodate up to 14,000 patrons for a variety of events. Home to regional sports leagues like a hockey team, this venue also accommodates various meeting and events, according to General Manager Mike Cera, who said meeting planners appreciate the layout of the facility. “This is not a traditional expo hall in design. Once you begin making the rounds on one side of the concourse, the flow takes you all the way around. Each booth gets maximum exposure.”
Located near the CenturyTel Center, the Holiday Inn Bossier City offers 212 guest rooms and
features 5,400 square feet of meeting space.
Casinos
There are five riverboat casinos in Shreveport-Bossier City:
Boomtown,
DiamondJacks, Eldorado, Horseshoe and Sam’s Town. Harrah’s Louisiana Downs, a horseracing venue, is located in Bossier City.
The 570-suite
DiamondJacks Casino and Resort celebrated its “first birthday” in August with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony commemorating the completion of its “all-new casino” renovation. “Our guests have looked forward to this renovation with great anticipation, as well as our own team members,” said Executive Vice President and General Manager Joe Collins. “I believe this renovation exceeds their expectations.” The casino area now dons a re-designed entrance ramp, remodeled gaming floor and refurbished bathrooms. “In addition to the resort’s gaming areas, we also enhanced the food selections at two of our most popular dining outlets—DJ’s Steakhouse and the Diamond Café—with complete menu makeovers,” Collins said. Later this year the resort plans to renovate the hotel lobby and banquet and meeting facilities. Currently, the resort features 22,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting space with a 1,200-seat showroom.
The 514-room Sam’s Town Hotel and Casino Shreveport features the 18,000-square-foot Magnolia Ballroom.
Attractions
Key Info: · Sales Tax: Shreveport is 8.6 percent and Bossier City is 9 percent.
· Hotel Tax: 4.5 percent
· Explore: TNT Express Thursday Night Trolley Tour offers a free 20-minute tour on an air-conditioned trolley. Open to individuals and groups and operating every third Thursday from 5:30-8:30 p.m., the tour, narrated by guide Jan Pettiet, includes 15 historic and cultural attractions throughout downtown. |
With good food, new hotels and a big convention center, Shreveport-Bossier City has plenty of ammunition to entice conventioneers. “We promote that we are affordable, easy to get to, with lots of things for conventioneers to do. We have the Louisiana Boardwalk, a retail/dining/entertainment lifestyle center. We have Sci-Port Discovery Center and IMAX Theater, which offers the world’s only interactive space Planetarium,” Claiborne said. “Some other unique meeting ideas we like meeting planners to know about are the historical Municipal Auditorium where Elvis got his start; the Strand Theatre, Louisiana’s state theater; and the Gardens of the American Rose Society Klima Hall, which sits on the grounds of America’s largest rose garden,” Claiborne said.
A new restaurant, Guillaumes, owned by Chef Saul Williams, has opened and promises Southern Cajun specialties such as crawfish bread and lightly fried catfish with a pecan cream sauce. Located in the Best Western Chateau Suites on Lake Street downtown, the restaurant was inspired by Williams’ family and, according to the CTB’s Pyles, Williams is “easily one of the most genuine restaurant owners you will ever meet.”
