Alexandria Hotel and Hospitality hopes to remain steady in 2010

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The 2010 Alexandria Hotel and Hospitality (AHH) budget report was shared at Monday night’s Alexandria City Council Meeting.

Brad Stevens, lodging bureau coordinator, reported that 2009 came in comparable to 2008, and AHH is expecting 2010 to stay “flat” as well.

“We’re considering flat the new up,” Stevens said, explaining that Duluth is down about 9 percent, and other communities as much as 30 to 40 percent.

He attributed Alexandria’s central location on the I-94 corridor as one of the main reasons it is holding steady while other communities are falling in tourism revenue.

Stevens informed council members that AHH continues focusing on an “aggressive” marketing approach that it began in March, which includes television commercials promoting the community.

He added that a lot of emphasis has been placed on the area from Alexandria west to Bismarck, North Dakota, and north to Winnipeg.

Billboards have been placed in the Fargo/Moorhead area, and a new one was placed in the Brainerd area.

Stevens added that the group is working to bring more conferences to the Alexandria area, and is currently bidding on some larger events.

“We’ve got some tentative commitments for conferences,” he said.

Stevens added that AHH is doing less print promotions and is focusing more on web-based initiatives.

He reported that AHH currently has about 210,000 people in its database and hopes to expand that in 2010.

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