After the state’s major wave of controversy following the passage of the divisive Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), some ripple effects are starting to become apparent.
Visit Indy, an organization that promotes tourism and travel in Indianapolis, has had a front-row seat to the fallout, which Chris Gahl, Visit Indy’s vice president of marketing and communications, said has been unprecedented.
When asked if he had seen this type or degree of backlash in Indy before, Gahl said, “The simple answer is no.”
“When you look at something that has generated potential lost convention business as well as tarnished the reputation of the city, this was a first.”
Gahl said since April 2015, a dozen conventions have cited RFRA as a reason (or the reason) for bypassing the Circle City.
“Any time a convention does not select Indianapolis, we ask them why,” Gahl said. “We ask an open-ended, unaided question — ‘Why didn’t you pick Indianapolis?’ — and we document the reasoning behind that.”
Gahl said 12 groups Visit Indy was actively pursuing mentioned RFRA when asked the open-ended question. Other common reasons for saying no include the size of the convention center, hotel rates and overall destination appeal.
Gahl said Visit Indy continues to pursue meeting groups that have previously turned down Indy as a host city; that’s why he won’t share the names of the 12 organizations.
“Just because we get a ‘no,’ doesn’t mean we’re giving up,” he said. “We wouldn’t want our competitors to know who we’re bidding on and who we’re actively pursuing, because they’re currently meeting in another city.”
Though Gahl wouldn’t name the groups, he did say none of the 12 has met in Indianapolis before, and he said the groups are varied.
“(That) makes it extra painful, because they would be new business to the city. They span from education to faith-based groups, from life science to medical. It’s a wide variety of conventions that make up these 12.”
Even for meeting groups that don’t necessarily decline to come to Indianapolis, RFRA and the state’s position on LGBT issues are still on people’s minds. An annual perception study done by Walker Research and Reach Market Planning for Visit Indy was conducted in October 2015, about seven months after RFRA’s passage and the ensuing outrage. The study asked meeting decision makers nationwide, “Has Indianapolis been in the news recently, and if so, for what topic(s)?” About 196 of the sample of 339 (58 percent) mentioned RFRA and/or LGBT issues in their response.
“In previous years, they would have recalled major sporting events, like the Men’s Final Four or the Indy 500, so that showed us there was a ripple effect and it’s still on the minds of meeting decision makers,” Gahl said.
Some meeting decision makers have specifically asked about changes in the city and state.
“As recently as last week, we were asked by a meeting decision maker about what was happening on the ground here in Indianapolis at our Statehouse,” Gahl said. “This is a meeting planner thinking about Indianapolis for a convention in 2025, someone based in Washington, D.C., and she was curious on the temperature and barometer of this issue.”
Meanwhile at the Statehouse, the so-called Super RFRA bill — which would have reinvigorated RFRA with some of its more controversial aspects that were stripped out after the firestorm — failed to make it out of committee. A human rights measure that would extend legal protections to people based on sexual orientation, but not gender identity, looked to be about dead as of press time. Lawmakers have struggled to agree on whether gender identity should be included as a protected classification.
“Our strategy has been to keep (meeting planners) posted on movements and bills being introduced at the Statehouse while also reinforcing the fact that Indy does welcome all, through our longstanding human rights ordinance,” Gahl said. “When this session ends in mid-March, we’re preparing to answer the question of what has changed, if anything, in terms of Indiana’s LGBT protections.”
In trying to measure the economic impact of the controversy, specifically the loss of those 12 potential conventions to Indianapolis, Visit Indy used an economic impact calculator that was created for the group by a Harvard economist. The calculator takes into account more than 100 variables to estimate the potential revenue of an organization’s visit to the city.
“Those 12 conventions tally $60 million in potential economic impact that won’t be realized because of Indianapolis not hosting them,” Gahl said.
With an annual total of about $4.5 billion in revenue generated by Indianapolis tourism, $60 million might seem like a drop in the bucket.
For perspective, Gahl said the loss of the $60 million in potential revenue is, economically speaking, “the equivalent of losing the NCAA Men’s Final Four.”
Still, more than 100 regional and national meetings and events — and a handful of international gatherings — will go on in 2016 as planned, and Visit Indy has meetings on the books as far out as 2026.
The Tuskegee Airmen Inc. 45th National Convention will be in downtown Indianapolis this July. A spokesman from Tuskegee Airmen Inc. declined to go on the record to discuss RFRA, saying the organization tries to steer clear of political debates. But he said the organization has a strong history in Indianapolis that is a motivating factor in bringing the convention to the Circle City.
Anita Rankin, a convention planner with the national African Methodist Episcopal Church — a group that hosted two conventions in Indianapolis last summer — said the city offers “one nice, neat package” for groups holding conventions. Rankin specifically cited the proximity of downtown hotels to the city’s convention center as one perk of hosting in Indy.
