Hosting its annual conference in this historic southern city, The National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators and Developers, Inc. (NABHOOD) is marking a decade of solid progress as an organization, and with 231 African-American owned hotels now in the U.S., is almost halfway to its stated goal of having 500 such properties open and operating by 2010.
A record number of attendees-373- are here at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center to network, learn and assess the opportunities for development, ownership and management within the lodging industry as part of NABHOOD's tenth annual International Multicultural Tourism/Hotel Ownership Summit and Trade Show, which runs through Saturday.
Andy Ingraham, the association's president/CEO told HOTEL BUSINESS(R) the robust turnout was 'an indication of the interest in the lodging space. I think as we create more awareness you're going to find even more people interested as more [hotel] brands help us spread the word. People are really excited about this opportunity; the hotel industry is just an exciting industry.'
To prove the point, Ingraham noted a scheduled owner's session was slated to accommodate 50 attendees, but 183 crowded into the room. 'All committed to join NABHOOD. That's truly an indication of interest that's happening in this space,' he said. '
NABHOOD Chairman Michael Roberts, who also is chairman/CEO of The Roberts Companies, which includes the Roberts Hotels Group, stressed the association is 'an organization that's about 'show me.' It is an organization that is specifically set up to help, and we do that through action...we're all capitalists; we're no longer entrepreneurs. The difference is entrepreneurs is interested primarily just for their one family; the capitalist really looks for generational wealth and to allow for their employees to have sustainability and to grow. We want to be the Henry Ford of a hundred years ago so that 100 years from now those who write that history will say thousands of people have been employed, families have been enriched, their children have been educated all through the efforts of NABHOOD and its various players and developers and owners of hotels, and even our suppliers and vendors.'
The conference has drawn a wide spectrum of politicians, including Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, who welcomed the group; lodging company executives, such as Cendant Corp. Hotel Division President/CEO Steve Rudnitsky; and a who's who among African-American hotel industry movers and shakers, such as NABHOOD vice chairman Tom Baltimore Jr., president/RLJ Development, LLC, who gave a luncheon presentation on the company and some of its recent activities, such as the $1.7 billion portfolio buy of 100 White Lodging hotels
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