American Airlines teams up with Dallas-Fort Worth visitors bureaus to increase bookings

12:00 AM CDT on Friday, July 10, 2009

By KAREN ROBINSON-JACOBS / The Dallas Morning News
krobinson@dallasnews.com

Officials with four Dallas-Fort Worth area visitors’ bureaus and American Airlines Inc. announced a program Thursday designed to put more zip into the slow-moving travel segment.

Called DFW Meet Now Promise, the program offers discounts and other incentives to groups that book and hold meetings in North Texas before New Year’s Eve.

Under the program, nearly 130 hotels have agreed not to charge event planners if all rooms that are booked for an event end up not being used. The concept, known in the trade as attrition, has kept some groups from booking rooms, not knowing if the economy would stop people from attending.

The program also includes group discounts on American Airlines and 20 percent discounts from participating ground transportation providers.

It was announced by officials from Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth and Irving and the convention and visitors bureaus of the four cities, along with the Hotel Association of North Texas. The announcement was made at a news conference at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the largest hub for American Airlines.

Officials called it the largest regional collaboration since the cities came together decades ago to build the airport.

The city officials said the new program shows the group can collaborate on regional issues ranging from transportation to planning for Super Bowl XLV in 2011.

The effort comes at a time when hotel revenue in Dallas is down by 10 percentage points from last year, according to Phillip Jones, president and chief executive of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau.

He said occupancy rates in Dallas are about 50 percent, slightly lower downtown, compared with 60 percent last year.

Meanwhile, airlines have struggled to generate enough traffic to fill their flights, despite capacity cuts and fare sales this year. The nine largest carriers reported that their June traffic was down 6.7 percent on a 6.9 percent reduction in flying capacity.

Jones acknowledged that with an expiration date of December, the Meet Now program will not attract large, citywide conventions that book more than 2,500 rooms years in advance.

“It’s the corporate, small meeting market that’s suffering right now,” said Jones. “This is a way to [increase] the interest level in North Texas.”

Looking longer term, he said, the city’s yet-to-be-built convention hotel downtown already has booked 600,000 room nights from 2012, shortly after the planned opening, through 2016.