Downtown Cincinnati hotels beat the odds

Bucking national and regional trends, a strong local convention business has helped downtown Cincinnati's hotels occupancy and room rates climb.

From January to July of 2008, local occupancy rates rose 7 percent over the same period last year, compared to a 3 percent drop nationally.

Many credit the $135 million expansion of the Duke Energy Convention Center, which reopened in mid 2006 and allowed for such high-profile conventions as the NAACP Convention and the National Baptist Convention.

"Cincinnati’s increase looks like much more when you look everywhere else that’s losing occupancy," Sotiris Avgoustis, chairman of the tourism, convention and event planning department of Indiana University at Indianapolis, tells the Cincinnati Enquirer, noting that occupancy is down in regional cities such as Indianapolis, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Detroit.

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