LAYTON — Slowed economy or not, conventions are still booking in Davis County.

Two such groups that are projected to generate nearly $600,000 in revenue this year and next were recently booked, says Davis Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO Barbara Riddle.

The 29th annual National Aerospace Foreign Object Damage conference will be held here in August. An estimated 2,000 room nights will be booked for the multi-day event that is expected to draw 600 delegates, she said. Revenue from that event is estimated at more than $370,000.

Meanwhile, about 1,000 room nights will be reserved for March of 2010 when the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association meets here. About 450 people are expected to attend with more than $205,000 economic impact anticipated, Riddle said.

“We’re finding groups who are booking for shorter terms than ever before,” also sometimes only months in advance, as with the aerospace group, she said.

In the meantime, Davis County is basking, among travel professionals, in the aftermath of the Utah Tourism Conference, which was held at the Conference Center last week, Riddle said.

“I’ve had so many comments from my friends and associates that ‘We had no idea what you had here,’” she said. “One comment was about the quality of service at the Conference Center,” little touches that often aren’t even done in up-scale hotels anymore, the CVB CEO continued.

“They (attendees) were very impressed with how beautiful the facility was, that our commissioners and the community had built such a fine facility,” she said.

“The expansion (opened about a year ago) was seamless, you couldn’t tell where one stopped and the other started. It looked as though it had all been constructed at the same time,” Riddle said.

And while the county’s hotel lodging numbers are down for April, it was the second highest in the state – and out stripped Salt Lake County, Ogden, St. George and Utah County.

Davis County and “other Utah properties” tied at 62.8 percent, compared to the state average of 56.3 percent, Salt Lake 58.9 percent, St. George’s 61.1 percent and Ogden’s 55.6 percent. Utah County stood at 59.9 percent, Logan at 44.1 percent and Park City/Utah Mountain Resorts were at 37.7 percent.

“The Rocky Mountain Lodging Report shows our numbers are still down, year over year,” but the drop is only in the single digits, Riddle said.

“The positive thing is that May looks really strong, and June is looking good,” she said.

tbusselberg@davisclipper.com