Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotels|"Grand Prix Fails To Fulfill Suburban Hotels Expectations"

Source              :  bizjournals.com
Category        :  Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotels
By                  :  Sarah Meehan
Posted By     :  Hotels in Virginia Beach South Courtyard

Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotels

The Grand Prix of Baltimore has been touted as an event that would draw international visitors and provide a business boost across Greater Baltimore. In three years, it hasn’t lived up to those expectations for hotels in the region. Downtown hotels near the racetrack are selling out of rooms, as they have for the past couple years. But heading into the race’s third run in Baltimore this Labor Day weekend, hotels in the suburbs aren’t getting the sell-out crowds they were initially promised.

Even hotels along the Light Rail — one of the easiest ways to commute downtown and avoid road closures — aren’t seeing a pickup in race-related bookings. North of Baltimore at hotels like the Holiday Inn Timonium, Sheraton Baltimore North and Residence Inn Baltimore Hunt Valley, sales representatives say it’s business as usual this weekend. Some said they had hoped for large crowds the Grand Prix’s first year — and even its second year under new organizers — but the guests never came, and it’s the same story this year.

South of the city near Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, hotels are busy, but not as a result of the race. Karen Neill, sales director at the Hampton Inn BWI, has two drum corps groups staying at her hotel for the 2013 Drum Corps Associates World Championships at the U.S. Naval Academy. She said groups from that competition will account for about 15,000 room nights this weekend at hotels across the region. The championships have been held at the Naval Academy on Labor Day weekend since 2011 — the same weekend as the Grand Prix.

Source : bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2013/08/29/grand-prix-fails-to-fulfill-suburban.html