Newark hotels, UD team up to build business

4:49 p.m., March 22, 2005--Hotels in the Newark area and the University of Delaware have teamed up in a marketing partnership that is expected to draw thousands of visitors to Newark.

The Newark Area Hotels Marketing Cooperative Group is developing “Destination Newark” by jointly promoting conference, recreational, dining and shopping facilities in the city, as well as the combined 1,000-plus hotel rooms.

The group includes Country Inn & Suites, Comfort Suites, Hawthorn Suites, Hilton-Wilmington/Christiana, Holiday Inn Wilmington/Newark, Embassy Suites Newark/Wilmington South, Sleep Inn-Newark, Homewood Suites Newark/Wilmington, Courtyard Newark-University of Delaware and Howard Johnson Inn & Suites & Conference Center.

The Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center, UD’s primary location for convocations, concerts and banquets, which also serves as the home for Blue Hen men's and women's basketball programs, will be the main facility for major events.

Opened in 1992, the 5,000-seat facility is part of the David M. Nelson Athletic Complex, which includes the 23,000-seat Delaware Stadium, the Delaware Field House, the 2,000-seat Delaware Diamond, numerous athletic fields, the Delaware Ice Skating Science Development Center at the Rust Ice Arena and the Outdoor Pool.

The partnership also will promote the Clayton Hall Conference Center, a modern, spacious and attractive facility in Newark, that offers a traditional small-town college atmosphere and easy access to major cultural and entertainment centers in nearby metropolitan areas.

Located on UD’s Laird campus, the conference center houses state-of-the-art facilities and can accommodate a wide range of conferences, from an intimate gathering of 10 to a full-scale 1,200-person gathering. The center has a 500-seat auditorium, 7,700 square feet of exhibit area and 22 conference and meeting rooms.

The Downtown Newark Partnership (DNP), which will participate in the partnership to promote local business, also will create a new hotel section on its web site [http://newark.de.us/downtown/] to provide information to potential visitors. DNP will work with the hotel group while planning local events, provide information about the team effort to local merchants and support joint marketing and promotion campaigns.

The partnership grew out of a proposal made in a class project by a team of hotel restaurant and institutional management majors--Jennifer Gladsden, Alexandra Maiman, both juniors, and Jackie Kandel, a senior. The required practicum course generated 30 projects dealing with operational and marketing aspects of the new Courtyard Newark-University of Delaware.

Article by Martin Mbugua
Photo by Lane McLaughlin

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