Hotels and restaurants seem to be renovating and upgrading after years of holding steady because of the wobbly economy, judging by the number of vendors and attendees expected at next week’s industry supply show in Myrtle Beach, organizers say.
About 1,800 vendors will be showing off their products during the Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Supply Show of the Southeast, with booth sales up about 25 percent from 2011, according to the show. And more industry folks are expected to browse the aisles – between 14,000 and 16,000 people; pre-registration was up about 40 percent.
Many hotels and restaurants, like other businesses, haven’t been putting as much into their properties in recent years because of the uncertainty with the economy, but they can’t hold off any longer because customers demand regular improvements, show producer Myra Starnes said.
“The customer base is forcing the renovations,” she said. “What’s happening is some of their stuff is just falling apart. Some pieces of equipment only have so much life.
“They see the economy coming back,” Starnes said. “It’s time.”
That could lead to a busy show next week. The show – which is open only to members in the hospitality industry – runs for three days at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. Hours are noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday.
Vendors sell a variety of products, including lighting, food offerings, furniture, insurance, bedbug products, equipment and some of the latest gadgets such as iPad menus. Big this year: Items to help hotels and restaurants go green.
“Everybody is really trying to lean toward being environmentally conscious,” said Kim Dahlin, marketing director for Leisure Time Unlimited, a Myrtle Beach-based company that owns and produces the show.
Some attendees will be looking for the latest products that could increase revenue amid today’s still-tough times.
“They are looking for other ways to boost the bottom line,” Starnes said.
The show, which started in 1976, was named one of the Top 30 events this month by BizTrade Shows, an online directory of trade fairs and business events.
KISS Coffeehouse gets a plug
It wasn’t all politics that won Myrtle Beach national exposure last week. The KISS Coffeehouse at Broadway at the Beach landed in a photo gallery on RollingStone.com spotlighting rock star restaurants.
The coffeehouse, the first one for the rock band known as much for its merchandising as its music, rubbed elbows in the online gallery with restaurants and bars owned by the likes of Ludacris, Jon Bon Jovi, Jay Z, B.B. King, Alice Cooper, Vince Neil of Motley Crue and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The blurb about the coffee shop plugged its products, but also acknowledged that “coffee may not exactly be synonymous with Kiss’ music or image.”
The coffeehouse opened about five years ago, with hordes of fans crowding Broadway for a shot at seeing the band’s Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. The coffeehouse’s owner loved getting the national attention last week.
“We’re rockin’ out every day and every night and love the fact that Rolling Stone saw fit to include our little ole coffeehouse in the mix,” owner Johnny Rock said in a written statement. “It’s very exciting anytime we can get that kind of national exposure.”
But another high-profile musician with several restaurants along the Grand Strand didn’t make the cut. As one commenter on the RollingStone.com spread noted, “What about Jimmy Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise & Margaritaville chains?”
Myrtle Beach has both of those Buffett restaurants, as well as the LandShark Bar & Grill downtown.
Playing in the sand
You probably saw the sandcastle built for last week’s Republican presidential debate in Myrtle Beach – either in person,, in photos or on TV.
But if it inspired you to think about creating your own sand creation, keep in mind what went into making the one last week.
It took five sculptors from Sarasota, Fla.-based Team Sandtastic six days to build the three pieces, including carving the candidates’ faces and “welcome to Myrtle Beach.” And if you think that Florida company rings a bell, you’re right. It’s built several sand sculptures in Myrtle Beach in recent years, including two for the presidential debates here four years ago and the World’s Tallest Sandcastle in 2007.
The sand sculpture last week weighed 525 tons, with the sand mined from a site near Conway, according to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
The sand creation featuring all the Republican presidential candidates – even Jon Huntsman who dropped out of the race just hours before Monday night’s debate – saw its share of traffic, with locals and visitors snapping photos and TV cameras airing footage, including a time-lapse video on Fox News of “Mount Myrtle” being built across from the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, where the debate went down.
Sand sculptures are becoming a calling card for Myrtle Beach, which built two of them four years ago when the city hosted Republican and Democratic presidential debates.
“Some people use billboards to get their messages across, but we use one of our greatest natural resources as a destination: sand,” chamber president Brad Dean said in a news release. “With a national spotlight on Myrtle Beach, these sand features allow us to mix politics, a national holiday and Myrtle Beach together in a unique and fun way.”
Scoring five diamonds
About 10 hotels and restaurants in the Carolinas received AAA Five Diamond ratings a week ago, but none of them are along the Grand Strand.
The Inn at Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Woodlands Inn and the Dining Room at Woodlands in Summerville were the South Carolina winners, while the N.C. winners were in Cary, Charlotte and Pittsboro.
The top-notch rating from the travel club goes to only 0.3 percent of the 59,000 properties inspected by AAA nationally each year.
The Grand Strand, known as an affordable destination, isn’t clamoring to have a property earn a five-diamond rating, though it would be nice, said Nora Hembree Battle, spokeswoman for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
“You are always trying to make the destination more dynamic,” she said. “I would certainly say it would be a positive thing for the area.”
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