lauren reynolds
Boise’s Rise: Small Big City in the Convention Landscape
Lauren Reynolds | April 27, 2023
By Lauren Reynolds, Eileen L. Bosworth The Boise Centre is Idaho's largest convention center, offering roughly 86,000 square feet of meeting space. Boise generally competes with two other regional markets for convention business: the Spokane Convention Center in the state of Washington and the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, which also features a brand-new, 700-room convention hotel. While remaining somewhat competitive in the 400-to-500 person or less group segment, Boise predominantly thrives in the small-to-midsize convention group segment due to its lack of a major convention hotel. Although group demand...
Southwestern Utah is Booming, Attracting National Investor Interest
Lauren Reynolds | January 20, 2023
By Lauren Reynolds Southwestern Utah provides robust outdoor recreation opportunities, with some of the most dramatic landscapes in the world. Washington and Kane counties, located in Southwest Utah, have experienced robust economic growth since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 given the presence of two national parks—Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park—in addition to several well-known state parks, such as Sand Hollow State Park and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The popularity of outdoor recreation areas soared during the pandemic, and the region benefited from this trend. In addition to leisure tra...
Salt Lake City Development Spurs Additional Investor Interest in This Emerging Hotel Market
Lauren Reynolds | January 5, 2023
By Lauren Reynolds, Ryan Mark Salt Lake City benefits from one of the busiest airports in the western U.S. and a strategic location near several landmarks and tourist attractions, including the Mighty 5. Transient demand to the city surged in 2021 as Utah became a popular drive-to leisure destination, but commercial travel continues to lag behind 2019 levels, similar to the rest of the nation. Commercial demand is expected to return fully by year-end 2023 or the beginning of 2024. Nonetheless, the city has enjoyed increases in demand as the local economy has recovered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Most notably, the ma...
HVS Market Pulse: Wyoming & Montana
Katy Black | December 17, 2020
By Katy Black, Lauren Reynolds Travel certainly looked different in the United States for 2020. The limitation of international travel, the postponement of events and festivals, remote working, virtual learning, and the closure or strict capacity limitations at several attractions have steered travelers to seek the great outdoors, particularly in more remote locations. Thus, the scene in the late summer and early fall was far from desolate in the three major national parks in Wyoming and Montana; in fact, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Teton National Parks experienced an increasing number of visitors through the end of the summer, wit...
HVS Market Pulse: Kalispell and Whitefish, Montana
Desiree Flanary | January 31, 2020
By Desiree Flanary and Lauren Reynolds Kalispell Due to Kalispell’s proximity to Glacier National Park, the region’s local economy is largely tied to tourism and is highly seasonal. Kalispell is home to 22 open and operating hotels, encompassing 1,885 guestrooms. Of those 22 hotels, four of them (totaling 348 guestrooms) have opened in the last six years, accounting for an 18% increase in hotel rooms in less than a decade. These new properties include a SpringHill Suites by Marriott, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, and MyPlace, which opened in 2016, 2018, and 2019, respectively. The property types in this market range from economy...
HVS Market Pulse: Interstate 5 Corridor Tourism Destinations in Oregon
Breanna S. Smith | November 26, 2019
By Breanna S. Smith, Lauren Reynolds Salem Salem, the state capital of Oregon, has not historically been known as a tourism destination. However, in recent years, the city’s local economy has diversified to include manufacturing, distribution, and technology. Thus, with the expansion of economic drivers and the increased population, Salem has entered a period of revitalization in order to offer more retail, dining, and entertainment facilities. This has also increased Salem’s attractiveness as a tourism destination. Furthermore, a vision for the rejuvenation of one the premier attractions in the area, Riverfront Park, is fostering high ...
