Melvin Tennant was recently named CEO of Meet Minneapolis, the city's convention and visitors bureau. Tennant, 48, joined the organization last year as head of its software affiliate. He had stepped up to interim CEO after Greg Ortale resigned to take a similar job in Houston. ¶ Tennant worked with Ortale in Houston more than 25 years ago. Since then, Tennant has headed bureaus in San Antonio, Oakland, Calif., and Charlotte, N.C. ¶ Here's an excerpt from a recent interview with Tennant. Q The number of hotel bookings increased last year, but room nights were down. What were the reasons for that?

A We've seen a trend over the last four or five years where the average size of a booking has been declining.

I think those are industrywide trends. Companies or associations are trying to be more prudent with their resources and not send as many people.

Q How are new bookings running this year?

A We're on track to make our goal of a little over 400,000 room nights. That's significant, because we won't have a major national convention to count like the Republican National Convention.

Our recent bookings include the National Association of Letter Carriers, with 9,000 expected attendees in 2012, and the National Soccer Coaches Association, with about 7,000 attendees in 2015.

Q What kinds of opportunities are there to gain convention business as a result of the Republican convention in September?

A We recently cohosted a client event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., with Denver, which typically is a competitor of ours but is the host city for the Democratic National Convention.

We used our upcoming political conventions as the hook. A lot of associations send lobbyists to political conventions. We're planning a variety of special events to show them how their events -- large and small -- could convene here.

Q What kind of impact will higher fuel and travel costs have on convention and trade-show business?

A We're not seeing cancellations, but the industry nationwide is seeing a trend of attendance being down.

The convention city that everybody aspires to be, Las Vegas, is having trouble with its convention business. Meanwhile, individual visitors are staying closer to home. So we're focusing on in-state and regional marketing.

Q But at the same time, your organization also is trying to focus on attracting more international visitors, right?

A The strength of foreign currencies against the dollar has made that a real priority.

We recently had a group of French travel executives here in connection with Northwest Airlines' new nonstop service to Paris. They were barely here for 36 hours, and they shopped so much -- cosmetics, jeans, electronics. They went to Target on the Nicollet Mall. Then they went to the Mall of America and were very disappointed they could only spend about four hours there.

Q The Convention Center underwent a major expansion in 2002. How has that affected business?

A The expansion increased space by about 70 percent and has allowed us to go after larger conventions. But it appears that when the expansion was done there were also some assumptions about increasing hotel inventory.

My sense is that there was an expectation that at some point in time there would also be a major convention hotel. Without that we have not reached all of our projections, but we're not going to use that alone as an excuse.

We do have a very good hotel package with the Hilton and Hyatt very nearby, and the Ivy recently added just outside the Convention Center. There's a Hilton Garden Inn going in literally across the street.

Q The past couple of years have seen a boom in downtown hotel development. Greg Ortale said he believed that we still needed a 1,200-room hotel. Why is that, especially if we can already host a major event like the Republican National Convention?

A So far, Meet Minneapolis does not have an official board position concerning that. There is a task force that will have some sort of recommendation in the next 60 days. I think most people feel that, at some point in time, it's going to be necessary.

The big difference will be what kind of public [financing] support it could get.

Q How much would a project like that cost?

A About $300 million.

Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723