Louisville’s Omni Hotel confirmed it would have been the venue for two conventions canceled due to California’s Travel ban, according to Wave3 News.
Mayor Greg Fischer previously cited a $2 million loss of business to the city. He was criticized as exaggerating the losses as contracts with the Chicago companies considering the city were not signed.
However, Omni Hotels came forward to confirm the loss of business:
As recent news stories have stated, Louisville lost two conventions because of a travel ban instituted by the state of California in response to Kentucky legislation. We can confirm that the Omni Louisville Hotel would have been the venue for these two conventions, and we received calls from each convention withdrawing from negotiations due to the California ban. We have used discretion in discussing this issue and have not identified the conventions, in hopes that we could persuade them to do business with Omni and Louisville in the future,” said Scott Stucky, the Omni hotel’s general manager.
The California Attorney General Xavier Becerra initiated a ban on travel to Kentucky due to the new Freedom of Religious Expression law, passed in March, as it may allow schools and clubs to discriminate entry by LGBTQ students. The law allows such groups expressing political and religious views in schools and universities to self-govern their membership, meaning that school officials cannot regulate who the groups let in.
Fischer wrote to Becerra asking for an exemption for the city of Lousiville, as it has a near perfect Pride score.
Gov1 recently reported that Louisville is the number four city nationwide that experiences higher real estate market demand in its communities with higher Neighborhood Pride scores, as researched by Trulia and OKCupid.
However, last week, Becerra denied a similar request by Lexington, Ky., Mayor Jim Gray.
California has initiated a ban on state-funded and state-sponsored travel to Alabama, Texas, and South Dakota and previously, to Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee.
