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 In January 2006, the opening of the SMG-managed, 350,000-square-foot Shreveport Convention Center signaled that Shreveport (and its sister city, Bossier City), Louisiana had become a better place for meetings, conventions, exhibitions and trade shows. Meeting Planners should now take note that an ongoing proliferation of new hotel rooms have made Shreveport a better place to stay when attending meetings, conventions, exhibitions and trade shows.

In fact, some have declared that the hotel business in Shreveport-Bossier City booming. There are more than 8,400 hotel rooms and an additional 2,000 due to open in the area within two years. One of the more prominent is the newly opened full-service, 313-room Hilton Hotel, located in the heart of downtown Shreveport and adjacent to the Shreveport Convention Center. Ideal for meeting attendees and business travelers, this new Hilton features complimentary wireless high-speed internet access in all rooms, in-room refrigerators, a spacious work space with an ergonomically designed desk chair, full-service restaurant, lounge, 24-hour room service, a Starbucks in the lobby and a state-of-the-art fitness facility with indoor pool and whirlpool.

More hotel space looms on this Northwest Louisiana horizon. Bossier City has two Marriott hotels due to open in 2008, a Springhill Suites at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs and another venue located at the Louisiana Boardwalk. A new Holiday Inn is also under construction, although a date for its opening has not been announced. In Shreveport, a Holiday Inn Express,  Candlewood Suites, Homewood Suites, Hilton Garden and Staybridge Suites will open in 2008. A Cambria Suites, owned by Choice Hotels International, is scheduled to open by January of 2009.

The lodging boom is expected to improve position Sherevport-Bossier City as a meetings destination. "With all of these new properties, we will able to even further expand our convention market," said Kim Brice, VP of Convention Marketing for the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau.

Brice emphasizes that the hotel growth is a result of meeting planners realizing the appeal of this unique Southern town. "Shreveport-Bossier is kind of a serendipitous destination for meeting planners," Brice added. "They come here expecting to find a small town player in the convention market. But once they get here, they find that we have all of the state-of-the-art amenities of a big city but with a huge helping of southern hospitality to go along with it."