In blow to Atlanta economy, Primerica cancels June meeting

One of Atlanta’s biggest convention customers, Duluth-based Primerica Financial Services, has pulled out of its June meeting because of the recession. Primerica, part of Citigroup Inc., announced the cancellation Friday afternoon, just hours after leaders with Meeting Planners International, one of the nation’s biggest convention planning groups, told Atlanta officials the meetings business will be down about 9 percent in 2009.

The Primerica convention, which comes to Atlanta every two years and brings between 40,000 and 55,000 people, was expected to have an economic impact of $55 million.

“While Primerica’s Duluth-based business remains financially strong, highly rated and profitable, everyone is aware that this is a time of unprecedented economic challenges,” Primerica spokesman Mark Supic said in a statement. “Citi continues to strive to reduce expenses, which includes eliminating certain meetings and events.”

Primerica has been holding its biennial meeting exclusively in Atlanta since 1993 and is one of the city’s top customers, said Mark Vaughan, executive vice president, chief sales and marketing officer for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. It uses all of the Georgia World Congress Center, which has 1.4 million square feet of exhibit space, and the 72,000-seat Georgia Dome. Vaughan said Primerica would have used 5,000 hotel rooms a night.

“They have been very loyal to us here in Atlanta,” Vaughan said of Primerica.

The blow will further complicate a year that already was shaping up to be tough.

GWCC Executive Director Dan Graveline has said that food and beverage and parking revenue at the nation’s fourth-largest convention center has been falling, and he has warned that officials may have to use reserve funds if the facility ends this year at a loss.

Even in better economic times, Vaughan said it is unlikely officials could fill the space in the four months before the canceled June 17-20 Primerica meeting.

The news comes as about 2,000 MPI members hold their annual conference at the GWCC Saturday through Tuesday. What they’re expected to discuss won’t be pretty.

In addition to a 9 percent drop in the nation’s $250 billion convention business, attendance is expected to fall 5 percent, Bruce MacMillan, the group’s president and chief executive officer, told Atlanta and state officials Friday at an ACVB breakfast.

Atlanta has attributes that could help it avoid that fate, he said. The city’s competitive hotel and convention rates as well as Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport give it a leg up on other meeting destinations.

“The ability for attendees to get in and out (of a city) has never been more vital,” he said.