Industry News
OCCC's 2004 First Quarter Exceeds Previous Record Breaker
Orlando, FL - Orange County Convention Center's first quarter is proving to be quite successful with an estimated 474,580 attendees (62 events) in the International Drive area. These attendees produce a positive economic impact of over $664 million on Central Florida. The month of January was also an OCCC record breaker with an estimated 203,280 attendees (21 events), which beats the previous attendance record set in January 1998 with 157,290 attendees (13 events). That's a 23% increase when comparing January 1998 to 2004.
According to Tom Ackert, OCCC Executive Director, "this definitely can be attributed to the expansion of the OCCC. In order to stay a major player in the convention business an expansion was inevitable and the chairman and the Board of County Commissioners made the bold step to move forward.
Five conventions or trade events were operating in the West Building while the 70,000 strong Super Show was going on in the North/South Building. "This illustrates the benefit of the expanded capacity"stated Ackert.
The conventions that are contributing to this phenomenal first quarter in 2004 include, but are not limited to, the Super Show (Jan-70,000*), PGA Expo (Jan-43,000*) World of Concrete (Feb-50,000*) and Coverings (Mar-30,000*). There are at least an additional 56 shows scheduled for the first quarter of 2004.
Next year's first quarter may prove to be another record breaker when the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) brings a potential 100,000 plus attendees to Orlando. NAHB's show attendance was a whopping 104,500 at this year's Vegas show and may well exceed those numbers next year, which will be NAHB's first time on the East coast of the United States.
For more information about the Orlando/Orange County Convention Center visit www.orlandoconvention.com
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*All attendance numbers are estimated & pending confirmation.
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