Trade center reports attendance up through May

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July 30, 2012

Trade center reports attendance up through May

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Mon Jul 30, 2012, 06:38 AM EDT

— The Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center is on track to break its annual attendance record, says General Manager Shashank Gairola.

“We are tracking ahead of last year, and in 2011 we had 159,000, which was a record for the building. We average around 515 events each year, and we are pretty much on target with that and on budget,” Gairola said.

Data provided by the trade center show total attendance at all events held there through May was 58,668. By comparison, total attendance in the same period in 2011 was 56,290 and in 2010 was 48,638.

Gairola credits a number of high-profile events.

“This has been a pretty interesting year at the trade center. We’ve hosted some pretty cool events. The Ramp, part of Karen Wheaton Ministries, came through in December and January and brought in thousands of young people to Dalton and we had a chance to fill the hotels at a time when they aren’t normally filled,” he said. “We helped the Chamber of Commerce welcome back J.R. Martinez after his ‘Dancing with the Stars’ win. We also had a chance to host the 2A men and women’s (high school) basketball tournaments here. We had the opportunity to partner with Family Frameworks to host Gary Chapman. The Whitfield Career Academy brought in a huge career fair and brought more than 6,000 kids through the building. Harlem Globetrotters returned earlier this year.”

Dalton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Brett Huske said hotel and motel tax collections in the city were up 15.9 percent through May from the same period in 2011 to $465,747.

Gairola says the trade center’s meeting and dinner business remains solid and its Hispanic events have bounced back after a lull last year.

“Off the top of my head, we had four straight weekends of Hispanic events recently,” he said.

“We’ve got some great things on tap for the future. We’ve teamed up with a local orchestra, the L’Abri Orchestra. It will be doing some concerts. The first one will be this December. TNA Impact Wrestling is returning Sept. 6. It’s their third appearance in Dalton, and they always create a lot of excitement,” Gairola said.

More long term, the Georgia Rampage, an indoor football team, last week announced plans to play six home games at the trade center in 2013.

“We are the largest facility in northwest Georgia, and we are able to attract visitors from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and that’s a positive for promoters,” Gairola said.

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