In your company, are you responsible for booking venues, facilities, restaurants and organizing transportation for meetings and events?
| Navigating the Bayou City |
As the largest city in the southern United States and a consistently growing name in the meetings and events field, Houston boasts an impressive transportation system that continually moves locals and business professionals in and out of the city. With two major airports, a 1,300-fleet bus transportation system and an Amtrak station, people can leave and enter the city by numerous means.
At the same time, the geographic layout of the city has resulted in an urban metropolis that lacks a core center of activity. Outside of the Inner Loop, the Greater Houston area might best be described as a series of satellite cities, with personal vehicles being the primary mode of transportation. Satellite locations where meetings and events can be scheduled include Sugar Land to the south, the Energy Corridor to the west and Greenspoint, Spring and The Woodlands to the north.
Within the city, however, efforts are being made to improve public transportation and to alleviate congestion. This includes adjustments to the city’s infrastructure itself, as major highways are continuously being improved to support the growing amount of traffic.
Meeting planners expecting to organize events in Houston should keep the above two factors in mind. It may not be difficult getting your clients to Houston, but you’ll need every resource available to move them in and around the city. Mix and match your options. Organize an itinerary that will allow you to use the public transportation that’s available along with the corporate transportation providers of your choice.
If car rentals are preferred by the clients, make sure they have maps of the city handy and ready to use. As mentioned earlier, Houston is a great metropolis with a diverse amalgamation of districts, neighborhoods, satellite cities and suburbs that are worth exploring. A carefully planned strategy will avoid a head-splitting traffic jam.
Airports
George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) is Houston’s largest airport system. The eighth-largest airport in the country in terms of total traffic and international passenger traffic, IAH provided 42 million visitors in 2008 with non-stop service to more than 100 locations within the United States and more than 70 non-stop service destinations around the globe.
In our last issue, we mentioned that George Bush Intercontinental Airport was about to embark on a $1.2 billion renovation initiative. Since then, we’ve seen some of the proposed additions completed, and we’ve also learned new details as to what else we can expect in the near future. The initiative includes expansion of the Automated People Mover (APM) to include Terminal A, the refurbishment of the Terminal B lobby and baggage claim areas, new concourses for regional and international jet operations, as well as infrastructure improvements, such as alterations to the roadways and fuel-storage systems.
The William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) is Houston’s second-largest airport and is the 43rd busiest airport in the nation in terms of passenger traffic. During 2008, HOU provided 8.8 million travelers with air travel through its four-runway facility. HOU was recently honored with two awards from the Airports Council International (AIC), in the categories of “Best Airports Worldwide” for the North American region and “Best Airport by Size” for facilities serving five to 15 million visitors on a yearly basis. The awards are based on the results of passenger questionnaires, which show that Houston’s air travel is setting the bar for top quality customer service.
Both airports are serviced by nine car rental companies including Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty. At HOU, booths from each company are located in the baggage claim area.
IAH makes use of its Consolidated Rental Car Facility (CRCF) to give travelers a streamlined car rental experience. The two-level facility houses all available rental car companies. All that passengers need to do once they disembark and gather their luggage is to look for the rental car shuttle, and in less then five minutes, the bus will take them to the CRCF where they can find a vehicle from the provider of their choice.
Visitors to Houston who do not intend on traveling with much baggage should take note of METRO’s Airport Direct service to and from IAH. From Terminal C, travelers can take a comfortably furnished METRO bus straight into downtown for a roundtrip fee of only $30. From downtown, travelers can easily connect to the Texas Medical Center or Reliant Stadium using the METRORail, with other important business locations only a few blocks walking distance from the light-rail stations.
Corporate Transportation
Corporate transportation gives business professionals an exciting means to explore their host city. While most trade show and convention attendees will opt for a car rental during their stay in Houston, there will occasionally be side events or special occasions that will require you to transport a group from one location to another. For example, your client wants you to arrange for his most valued business partners to have dinner at a steakhouse 20 minutes away from the downtown hotel his guests are staying at. Letting your client’s VIPs drive there on their own is certainly an option, but it’s definitely not the professional thing to do. You’ll need a transportation service company to provide you with a top-quality vehicle and a friendly driver that can comfortably accommodate your group. As a motorist city, Houston is filled with such options.
At the same time, the geographic layout of the city has resulted in an urban metropolis that lacks a core center of activity. Outside of the Inner Loop, the Greater Houston area might best be described as a series of satellite cities, with personal vehicles being the primary mode of transportation. Satellite locations where meetings and events can be scheduled include Sugar Land to the south, the Energy Corridor to the west and Greenspoint, Spring and The Woodlands to the north.
Within the city, however, efforts are being made to improve public transportation and to alleviate congestion. This includes adjustments to the city’s infrastructure itself, as major highways are continuously being improved to support the growing amount of traffic.
Meeting planners expecting to organize events in Houston should keep the above two factors in mind. It may not be difficult getting your clients to Houston, but you’ll need every resource available to move them in and around the city. Mix and match your options. Organize an itinerary that will allow you to use the public transportation that’s available along with the corporate transportation providers of your choice.
If car rentals are preferred by the clients, make sure they have maps of the city handy and ready to use. As mentioned earlier, Houston is a great metropolis with a diverse amalgamation of districts, neighborhoods, satellite cities and suburbs that are worth exploring. A carefully planned strategy will avoid a head-splitting traffic jam.
Airports
George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) is Houston’s largest airport system. The eighth-largest airport in the country in terms of total traffic and international passenger traffic, IAH provided 42 million visitors in 2008 with non-stop service to more than 100 locations within the United States and more than 70 non-stop service destinations around the globe.
In our last issue, we mentioned that George Bush Intercontinental Airport was about to embark on a $1.2 billion renovation initiative. Since then, we’ve seen some of the proposed additions completed, and we’ve also learned new details as to what else we can expect in the near future. The initiative includes expansion of the Automated People Mover (APM) to include Terminal A, the refurbishment of the Terminal B lobby and baggage claim areas, new concourses for regional and international jet operations, as well as infrastructure improvements, such as alterations to the roadways and fuel-storage systems.
The William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) is Houston’s second-largest airport and is the 43rd busiest airport in the nation in terms of passenger traffic. During 2008, HOU provided 8.8 million travelers with air travel through its four-runway facility. HOU was recently honored with two awards from the Airports Council International (AIC), in the categories of “Best Airports Worldwide” for the North American region and “Best Airport by Size” for facilities serving five to 15 million visitors on a yearly basis. The awards are based on the results of passenger questionnaires, which show that Houston’s air travel is setting the bar for top quality customer service.
Both airports are serviced by nine car rental companies including Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty. At HOU, booths from each company are located in the baggage claim area.
IAH makes use of its Consolidated Rental Car Facility (CRCF) to give travelers a streamlined car rental experience. The two-level facility houses all available rental car companies. All that passengers need to do once they disembark and gather their luggage is to look for the rental car shuttle, and in less then five minutes, the bus will take them to the CRCF where they can find a vehicle from the provider of their choice.
Visitors to Houston who do not intend on traveling with much baggage should take note of METRO’s Airport Direct service to and from IAH. From Terminal C, travelers can take a comfortably furnished METRO bus straight into downtown for a roundtrip fee of only $30. From downtown, travelers can easily connect to the Texas Medical Center or Reliant Stadium using the METRORail, with other important business locations only a few blocks walking distance from the light-rail stations.
Corporate Transportation
Corporate transportation gives business professionals an exciting means to explore their host city. While most trade show and convention attendees will opt for a car rental during their stay in Houston, there will occasionally be side events or special occasions that will require you to transport a group from one location to another. For example, your client wants you to arrange for his most valued business partners to have dinner at a steakhouse 20 minutes away from the downtown hotel his guests are staying at. Letting your client’s VIPs drive there on their own is certainly an option, but it’s definitely not the professional thing to do. You’ll need a transportation service company to provide you with a top-quality vehicle and a friendly driver that can comfortably accommodate your group. As a motorist city, Houston is filled with such options.
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If accepted, your submission will be edited for length and clarity. There is no monetary payment if your item is used; instead, you can publicize yourself through a five-line biography with your contact information that will appear at the end of the article.
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editorial@MeetingPlannerResources.org. We will contact you if your submission is chosen.