by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
When Kitty Ratcliffe came to Jacksonville from Baltimore five years ago, the convention business here was “fledgling at best.” That’s according to BellSouth’s Michael Stewart, who chairs the Jacksonville & The Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau where Ratcliffe serves as president.
Today, the consensus is, we’ve come a long way, but there’s lots of work still to be done.
“I think we’re finally admitting that the convention [Osborn] center doesn’t really work the way it is right now,” said Ratcliffe to an audience of about 40 people at the Chamber’s Downtown Council meeting last week. “We either need a hotel next to the convention center or we need to move it closer to one of the hotels we already have.”
Ratcliffe believes that the current situation is preventing Jacksonville’s ability to attract large groups.
There is reason for optimism. Ratcliffe said she gets positive feedback all the time from groups who tell her what a beautiful city this is and how pleased they are they chose it for their convention.
“Just the other day we had the the southern region conference of the National Urban League and the national president couldn’t believe what a beautiful city Jacksonville is,” she said. The visitor’s bureau took the group on a boat ride on the St. John’s River.
Ratcliffe was in Baltimore during its major downtown revitalization and she continues to work to emulate the success they had there.
Baltimore used convention business and tourism in general as the primary catalyst for downtown redevelopment. The first step was a convention center hotel. That enabled the city to attract major convention business. Next, they built a nationally recognized aquarium and a science museum. Finally, they built a Rouse-designed Landing on the harbor, something Ratcliffe called the “piece de resistance.”
They didn’t stop there. The city of Baltimore also had a worn-down former residential area a few blocks from the downtown waterfront. It was two blocks of old row houses, long since abandoned. The City bought the property and then sold the houses for $1 each. The deal was, buyers had to put $50,000 into renovating the property and it had to be your primary residence.
“The similarities aren’t exact, but they’re similar,” said Ratcliffe. “We’re working on residential housing. We’ve got places to eat and shop. We’ve got museums. We’ve got nice hotels.”
Ratcliffe said one of the most important aspects of enhancing tourism in our city is to educate each other on what’s available.
“We don’t want the cab driver to tell the guy coming in for the convention that he’s better off going out to the beach,” she said. “We can be our own best ambassadors, or our own worst enemies.”
The CVB is currently engaged in a new ad campaign to combat the convention business decrease that has come as a result of Sept. 11 and a faltering economy.
“It’s a strange business that we’re in,” she said. “People come, spend a lot of money, and then leave. We just want to make sure they come back.”