By Ken Alltucker
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati tourism officials promise better days ahead for downtown shops, restaurants and hotels when a $160 million expansion of the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention center is finished in 2006.

But a key challenge for the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau will be to land large business meetings and trade shows while construction crews work on the expansion.

A report released Tuesday shows the area's chief tourism agency has turned away conventions and trade groups that could have booked up to 55,000 hotel rooms in the next few years. There won't be enough space at the downtown center between 2004 and 2006 as it is remodeled.

Downtown hoteliers are bracing for a difficult hit.

"It's going to be fairly bleak in 2004 and 2005," said Rob Gauthier, general manager of the Millennium Hotel on Sixth Street. "But at some point in time, we need to bite the bullet from this construction. It is better to do something than nothing."

The report shows that the bureau has struggled to book conventions because of the expansion. The poor economy and dwindling corporate and government travel budgets played a role, too.

Through September 2002, the bureau signed up conventions that promised to fill more than 72,000 hotel-room nights. Through September 2003, the bureau signed deals that will generate fewer than 35,000 hotel-room bookings.

The bureau says a change in policy made this year's numbers look artificially low. Nevertheless, bureau CEO Lisa Haller acknowledged that her staff hasn't met its goals.

"It's promising, but we're not there yet," said Haller, who said competing Midwestern cities have also had trouble landing conventions.

The bureau has turned to tourism to offset the soft convention bookings.

Tourists visiting new attractions such as the Great American Ball Park and the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art have rented more hotel rooms than the bureau expected.

Tourists booked more than 360,000 hotel-room nights through September. That's an increase of almost 104,000 from last year - a figure that helped boost the area's average hotel occupancy.

Michael Hughes, research director for Los Angeles-based Tradeshow Week, said only tourist heavyweights such as Orlando, Fla., Las Vegas and San Diego are successfully drawing more conventions and visitors.

"Corporate travel budgets are still frozen somewhat," Hughes said. "There are only a few cities that have been able to consistently win market share."

E-mail kalltucker@enquirer.com