Tourism leader touts benefits of meeting space

SMITHFIELD — To meet the demands of a growing county, event spaces are sprouting across Johnston.

County Commissioners could approve another one as soon as next month.

But to Donna Bailey-Taylor, head of the county Visitors Bureau, Johnston’s event space puzzle is incomplete. “In our opinion, we miss out on the whole meetings and conventions segment of the tourism industry,” she said in an email.

That’s because Johnston doesn’t have a conference space that can accommodate groups of up to 500 people, Bailey-Taylor said. “We have no full-service hotel with meeting space, and the largest space in a hotel is around 1,200 square feet,” she noted.

Bailey-Taylor is confident the demand exists for a conference center. “We could market to state associations, corporate meetings and SMERF,” she said, referring to social, military, education, religious and fraternal groups.

A long-ago report agrees with her.

“Back in 2001, the Visitors Bureau conducted a study assessing the need for meeting/conference space for groups of 200 to 500 people,” Bailey-Taylor said. “The report was positive that the demand was there.” And it recommended that the county build a conference center next to a hotel.

But the report would gather dust on a shelf.

“There was no political support to increase the room tax to finance a county space,” Bailey-Taylor said, adding that such a space could have attracted conferences while keeping Johnston groups in the county.

Absent action by the county, the private sector moved to fill a void.

“Since that time, more than 12 wedding (and) reception spaces have been built by individuals,” Bailey-Taylor noted. “Several more are on the way based on calls or lists of venues under development.”

But the privately owned venues aren’t full service, at least not in the way Bailey-Taylor imagines a conference center would be. “None of the meeting spaces being built have commercial kitchens and rely on caterers to bring in services,” she said.

Also, with the exception of the Barn at Broadslab, lodging is missing from the private venue picture, Bailey-Taylor said. “Broadslab has a couple of lodging options,” she noted. “However, other independent venues located around the county are not located near hotels.”

While the county has no conference center, her office does provide services for large Johnston groups forced to turn to Wake County for meeting space, Bailey-Taylor said. “In fact, we have 500 bags right now ready to be picked up for a group Johnston County is hosting — in Wake County,” she said, referring to swag bags filled with pens, postcards, coupons and the like. Every bag gets a Johnston County Visitors Guide too.

Bailey-Taylor would like to be able to bring those large groups home. “That’s lost revenues for Johnston County’s venues, hotels, retail, restaurants and service providers,” she said.

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