Gem shows crowd already making plans for next year

Even as this year's shows wind down, gem shows officials, exhibitors and shoppers are making plans for next year's event, which will be held in the first two weeks of February.

The Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase 2001 officially wraps up tonight, when most of the dealers and buyers will have packed up their displays and folded their tents to head out of town.

Today's main activities will center around the Congress Street Expo at Tucson Electric Park, 2500 E. Ajo Way and nine shows Downtown, including the 47th annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave.

"There will be new shows next year," Jean McKnight Guymon, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau, said yesterday. "The show continues to grow. The fact remains that Tucson is the place to be if you're in the gem, mineral and fossil business."

And the dealers and buyers seem to arrive earlier every year.

California mineral expert Richard Haefner, a longtime gem show participant, said many serious collectors buy minerals before they are displayed and leave town before the show even opens.

Gem show officials said the gem show attendance was good this year. Dealers and organizers gave mixed reviews on this year's business. One dealer sold out his first day. Others said business held steady. Still others said business was slower this year.

"One exhibitor made more on the opening day than he made during the whole show last year," said Cheryl Wormington, show director for the Gem & Jewelry Exchange, 411 W. Congress St. "Traffic was up."

"We're very pleased," Wes Seibold, manager, miner and stone carver for the Oregon-based West Coast Gemstone, said yesterday. "It's been very stable," he said of the business in room 115 at the InnSuites Hotel & Resort, 475 N. Granada Ave. "It's been a good show for us."

After a record-breaking year last year, the distinguished Dallas-based American Gem Trade Association saw its figures for buyers drop from 9,400 to 9,000 at its annual show, said Douglas Hucker, executive director of the association. The show started in the city with about 100 members and 150 exhibitors and has grown in 20 years to 800 members and 450 exhibitors.

"We saw more serious buyers this year," Hucker said. "People weren't experimenting as much. They were buying to bulk up their general inventory."

Officials said they are not planning to conduct research on sales and attendance at this year's shows. Last year, about 46,500 people visited the shows, according to the visitors bureau. Exhibitors, buyers and out-of-town shoppers spent $76.5 million for goods and services, the bureau said.

Several area hotels reported that advance registrations have been made for next year. "About half the rooms have already been booked," Mary Sierra, front desk clerk at La Quinta Inn, 665 N. Freeway Road, said yesterday of the 133-room hotel.

The Presidio Plaza hotel has 95 percent of its rooms purchased for the 2002 gem show, Sherry Ferguson, banquet manager for the hotel at 181 W. Broadway, said yesterday. "In the four years that I've been doing the gem show," she said, " I think this is the best one that we've had."

Joe Patel, manager at Days Inn, 222 S. Freeway, said dealers and buyers have booked 70 out of 122 rooms in the hotel for next year's show. Business was so good this year, he said, that he's added more spaces for dealers next year in the hotel's courtyard.

Gem shoppers Roger and Stella Baker and their three children came down to the show for the first time to find Russian trilobites. "We'll come again," Stella Baker, a Flagstaff resident, said yesterday. "Our boys are big fossil lovers."

Visitor Nancy West of Atlanta said she preferred the shows when they weren't as spread out around the city. But she vowed to return again. "We come here every year," she said. "It's a ritual."

The Congress Street Expo, which moved away from Downtown to Tucson Electric Park this year, bustled with gem show shoppers, said Jody Hartley, co-owner of Gem Show Productions LLC. One day, "there were more than 2,500 cars," she said yesterday.

Gem Show Productions manager Chris Hartley said the company is in negotiations with Pima County Stadium District for a possible $400,000 joint venture that could provide parking lot paving, parking lights, telephone lines, water and public restrooms to the site.

When the gem show crowd returns in 2002, it will find several new show highlights:

* The 48th Tucson Gem & Mineral Society show will feature minerals and art from Africa.

* Businessman Allan Norville plans to build a parking garage at 411 W. Congress St. and plans to use the ground floor for the Gem & Jewelry Exchange show. The plan expected for approval in the next two weeks calls for a four-story 1,400-space garage, said John Jones, project manager for the city manager.

* The Manning House at 450 W. Paseo Redondo will hold a new gemstone artist show in the Rotunda, Atrium and Lavender Ballroom sections of the estate. This year's diamond show will also return.

* The Tucson Convention Center has plans to freshen its look with updated restroom fixtures and new carpet.

* Tucson International Airport is in the process of increasing its rental car space from 500 to 1,500 spots.

* Contact reporter Jeannine Relly at 573-4213 or by e-mail at jrelly@azstarnet.com.