A local consumer show that has drawn visitors from Wilmington and beyond for the past eight years is taking its business to Fayetteville.

In a recent news release, the Cape Fear Wildlife Expo announced that its 2017 show will be held at Fayetteville’s Crown Complex Arena next March.

The primary issue is outdoor space, expo president W.C. Lanier said Wednesday.

“We needed more outside space for larger RVs and bigger boats, plus Fayetteville had been after us, and they have a larger population,” he said. “One problem we had in Wilmington was [a lack of] staging area for our vendors, and we were running out of space for people to park. Cape Fear Community College was gracious enough to let us use some of theirs, but they are building, so there’s less space.”

At the Crown Complex Arena, there is plenty of space for displays as well as free parking, Lanier added.

Lanier estimated that the wildlife expo’s annual economic impact in Wilmington was between $3 million and $4 million, and its yearly attendance at 10,000, including busloads of school children from North and South Carolina. Those estimates could not be confirmed by the Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Consumer shows and festivals that don’t involve registration have so many variables we’re not able to track, that we can’t estimate their economic impact,” CVB spokeswoman Connie Nelson said.

Katherine Smith, senior sales manager of the Coastline Conference and Event Center and the adjoining Best Western Plus Coastline Inn, said the expo typically would book a block of 25 rooms at the Best Western, and expo attendees would fill up the remaining rooms at rack rate. She estimated room revenues for the expo's Thursday through Saturday period at about $22,000, and revenue from the Saturday night fundraiser banquet – held at the Coastline Center – at $1,500.

Two Market Street properties – the Sleep Inn and MainStay Suites, also saw considerable business from the Wildlife Expo, according to Bill Swinson, sales director for both hotels.

“We’re going to miss it,” Swinson said. “When [the expo] first started out, we had the meet and greet for vendors here; we had a cookout.”

Swinson said that expo-related bookings involved three-to-four-night stays and represented revenues “in the tens of thousands” of dollars.

The show may have passed its peak, however, observers said. Having started out eight years ago in the Coastline Center, the expo grew large enough that it expanded to the Wilmington Convention Center when that facility opened in early 2011, even using one of the parking deck levels for boat and recreational vehicle display when space demand required. But this year was different, said Susan Eaton, the convention center’s general manager.

This past March, the show occupied only the interior of the convention center, and the number of vendors seemed to have dwindled.

“Events go in cycles, and every show experiences ups and downs in attendance,” Eaton said Wednesday. “Shows have to find new ways to present. We wish [the Cape Fear Wildlife Expo] well in their new venue.”

Lanier said the wildlife expo is getting incentives from the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and he is talking with the city’s chamber of commerce there as well. Fayetteville’s location along Interstate 95 should make the show more accessible for people from population centers throughout the region, he said.