Gazette Telegraph, Colorado Springs
March 5, 1993

$2.2 million in conventions lost

By Jane Grandolfo

Colorado Springs has lost $2.2 million in meetings so far this year as a result 
of the boycott over Amendment 2, convention officials said Thursday.

While the entire city is expected to sting from canceled conventions, the 
Broadmoor apparently is taking it on the chin.

The five-star hotel reportedly laid off 60 employees on Wednesday and 
Thursday--just one week after the Colorado Bar Association announced it would 
pull its annual meeting from the hotel.  The 600 lawyers were expected to pump 
at least $500,000 into the hotel, its restaurants and shops during their 
four-day convention here, said Terry Sullivan, director of the Colorado Springs 
Convention & Visitors Bureau.

This comes after the U.S. Confernece of Mayors decided to yank its annual 
convention from the city in protest over the anti-gay rights amendment approved 
by the state's voters last November.  Of the 1,350 mayors, political aides and 
spouses expected this summer, 600 were slated to stay at The Broadmoor.  That 
would have put at least another $412,800 into the hotel's coffers, Sullivan 
said.

Sullivan estimates the city's--and The Broadmoor's--loses by using a (sic) 
International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau formula that 
figures each delegate spends $688 during a four-day stay. In all, the city has 
lost about 3,250 delegates and the $2.2 million those people would have 
injected into the local economy.

But there are other losses, such as the media coverage that accompanies 
national conventions.  The mayor's meeting alone would have generated about $1 
million in free publicity for the city, Sullivan said.

While Broadmoor officials refused to comment about layoffs or canceled 
conventions, there are indications that the boycotts have dealt a 
disproportionate blow to the hotel.

Other luxury hotels, such as the Marriott and the Antlers Doubletree, have not 
been hit as hard because they don't accommodate large national conventions.

"Because of The Broadmoor's larage meeting facilities and their excellent 
national marketing effort, they're very dependent upon associations like the 
state bar and the U.S. Conference of Mayors," Sullivan said.

The Cheyenne Conference Resort, however, is running a close second.  The 
withdrawal by the National Education Association, which would have attracted 
about 800 delegates over the course of several meetings this spring and fall, 
cost the resot an estimated $550,000, Sullivan said.

Other groups that have announced cancellations in Colorado Springs include the 
Association of Art Museum Directors, the American Public Health Association and 
the American Association of Law Libraries.

Cancellations, meanwhile, also are mounting in Denver.  Denver has lost $33.8 
million in conventions becuase of Amendment 2 and other gorups planning 
activities worth nearly $53 million more are reconsidering thier bookings, city 
officials say.

In Colorado Springs, the losses so far represent only 4 percent of last year's 
total convention business, Sullivan said.  Eighty thousand people came here for 
meetings in 1992 and spent about $54 million, he said.

"The boycott is making our life tough.  I don't like losing 3,200 people, but 
on the other hand I would tell you that our tourism numbers have grown in 
excess of 3,200 people for the summer of 1993," said Sullivan.

Cancellations
Groups that canceled convention plans in Colorado Springs include:

*	U.S. Conference of Mayors**
*	Colorado Bar Association**
*	Association of Art Museum Directors
*	American Public Health Association
*	American Association of Law Libraries
*	National Education Assocation (sic)

** - Canceled plans at The Broadmoor.