Atlanta tourism agency halts 401(k) match for employees

The group that promotes Atlanta as a tourism destination said Friday it is suspending its contributions to employee pensions and 401(k) matches for the remainder of the year.

Officials with the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau said falling revenues — caused by a loss in visitor traffic and fewer hotel stays — is forcing the group to trim its budget by $600,000.

“We’ve got to stay ahead of the budget situation,” said ACVB President William Pate. “This is not unique to our industry and not unique to our bureau.”

Suspending the pension and 401(k) contributions for this year will save between $400,000 and $500,000, Pate said. The group will stop 401(k) contributions March 1. The pension suspension is retroactive to the beginning of this year.

The remaining $100,000 will come from tightening program expenditures.

The news comes less than a week after one of the city’s largest conventions, Duluth-based financial services company Primerica, announced it was canceling its June show because of the recession. That meeting, which brings anywhere from 40,000 to 55,000 people to Atlanta every two years, had an estimated economic impact of $55 million.

However, Pate said the nonprofit ACVB was seeing financial stress long before Primerica’s decision. The ACVB’s 2009 budget was completed in October as the economic situation was unraveling.

“We really didn’t start to see the significant softening until November and December,” Pate said.

Convention business in Atlanta is expected to be off 4 percent this year, said Mark Vaughan, executive vice president, chief sales and marketing officer for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hotel occupancy is expected to be down 6 percent.

Pate said no layoffs or furloughs are planned at this time, but he did not rule out other cost-cutting moves.

“Everything is on the table because I don’t have visibility on how this year is going to end,” he said.