Meetings and Events Houston | Navigating the Bayou City

Navigating the Bayou City

Article By: Adam Castaneda of III: Volume 2 - Issue 1

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.

Houston Corporate Transportation (HCT) (formerly known as J&B Limousine) offers meeting planners special offers for airport, convention, leisure and corporate account services. The HCT fleet includes luxury sedans, which hold three to four passengers, and SUVS, which can accommodate five to six passengers. Available stretch limousines can provide fun and memorable rides for up to 10 passengers while vans can transport a small group of up to 15 from one location to the next. For larger groups, look into renting one of either two types of buses, one with a capacity of 22 passengers and the other with a limit of 32. HCT services are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

AFC Corporate Transportation boasts a fleet of 138 vehicles, making it the largest transportation service company in Texas and ranked in the top 40 in the nation. Not only does AFC give visitors a way to get to and from Houston’s two airports, they also provide transportation services to the Carnival and Caribbean Cruise Lines in Galveston. The diverse fleet includes sedan Navigators and super-stretch limousines. Executive and limo vans offer all the space of a typical eight to 10-person van, but with the luxury amenities of a true limousine. AFC also provides the mass transit capabilities of charter coach buses, perfect for any out-of-town excursions for a large group of guests.

Our corporate transportation partners are an example of the high-quality service that can be found throughout Houston. Avanti Transportation and Global Transportation both offer optimum travel amenities, the latest models of luxury vehicles and unbeatable corporate packages.

Public Transportation
Over the past year, local legislation has pushed for the expansion of the city’s light-rail line, which will enable Houston to develop a more progressive public transportation system in the near future. The first step in this three-year development project will be to extend the original 7.5-mile METRORail line. The Red Line will constitute a 5.2-mile extension from the University of Houston-Downtown Station to the proposed Northline Center Station. The five new lines are expected to be operational by 2012.

The current light-rail line is an important transportation option for visiting meeting professionals to be aware of. Sixteen stops enable passengers to gain easy access to many important destinations in central Houston. From the University of Houston-Downtown, the light-rail travels south on Main Street making numerous stops downtown including the downtown Metro Transit Center, the Museum District, Rice University and Reliant Park. The rail’s practicality is evidenced by the 40,000 passengers who use it on a daily basis, so if your itinerary leads you anywhere along the line, make sure to take advantage of this affordable and eco-friendly means of travel. Passengers should note that at each stop, there’s a METRO pay station that takes cash or credit cards to purchase one-way, roundtrip, full- day and week-long rail passes.

Cab service is also available throughout the city and having a fact sheet of your local providers is always a good idea, especially if you will be dealing with visitors who are unfamiliar with navigating the city. Cab services offer cost-effective transportation anywhere in the city, including the major business sectors of downtown. Make sure to point out to your clients that some cab services charge on a flat rate that is based on zoning plans of the city, while others go strictly by the meter. Cab fare from either airport to the downtown area typically runs between $45 to $50.

Houston is a city that is in a continual state of growth with the typical big-city mix of construction, detours, traffic jams and quirky driving styles. Needless to say, for many visitors with limited time, it can be daunting. Your creative efforts to make the city more travel-friendly for those clients who would prefer not to get behind the wheel will be well appreciated.