Tourism Official to Conduct New Convention Study

BOSTON-The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau will conduct a study to assess the level of potential interest in the proposed convention center here in South Boston. The decision comes on the heels of a recently released report by the Pioneer Institute that indicated that the need for the convention center was not clear. Patrick Moscaritolo, president of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, insists that his study is not a response to the Pioneer Institute’s report.

“This is something we’ve been talking about for two to three weeks,” he tells GlobeSt.com. Moscaritolo met with Steve Crosby, the state’s secretary for administration and finance, and Gloria Larson, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, and they decided that the study needed to be done because the convention center’s initial feasibility report is more than four years old.

“Things have changed since then,” says Moscaritolo. “Hotel development has slowed to a crawl and capital markets have dried up. We need to know how that impacts on a meeting planner’s decisions. We need to know if they’ve readjusted their criteria factors.”