Army aviators to land next month

Friday, March 28, 2008

Army aviators to land next month

Kevin J. Shay |

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Gaylord executives say their facility has added to the area’s hotel business and their focus is on bringing in meetings that wouldn’t otherwise be in the region.

For example, the Army Aviation Association of America in Monroe, Conn., will take up the center’s entire hotel and meeting space April 6-9 for its annual convention. That meeting was in cities including Atlanta and Nashville, Tenn., in recent years.

‘‘They have wanted to have their convention in the Washington, D.C., area before but couldn’t because they couldn’t legally land military aircraft near the convention site before,” said Amie Gorrell, a spokeswoman for Gaylord National. ‘‘We have a wide-open area behind our hotel where they can safely land helicopters and tow them inside the exhibit hall.”

At least one Maryland hotel, the Lexington Hotel in Oxon Hill, is getting overflow business from that convention and others slated at Gaylord, Gorrell said. But apparently, so are several hotels in Alexandria, Va., that are listed as overflow hotels for the Army group’s convention on its Internet site.

Gaylord has a strong reputation and effective strategy, in which those organizing meetings don’t have to worry about negotiating with many different parties or shuttling conference attendees around, said Heywood Sanders, a professor of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio and author of reports on the convention industry.

‘‘They make it quite convenient for meeting planners,” he said. ‘‘They offer the meeting planners a self-contained location around major visitors’ destinations, yet they are located a little ways away from inner cities.”