The largest single convention ever to be held in Utah is scheduled for 2011, when Rotary Club members from 166 countries will gather in Salt Lake City.

Rotary International's decision to hold its centennial convention in Salt Lake City, rather than in Washington; Minneapolis; Denver; or Cairo, Egypt, validates last August's decision to expand the Salt Palace Convention Center, a convention official said.

"We have not convinced a group this size to come to Utah since the 2002 Olympics," said Diane Binger, president of the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau. In announcing the Rotary convention Tuesday, city convention officials estimated 31,000 Rotarians will converge on Salt Lake City and spend $27 million while in town.

Eugene Banks, who headed the Salt Lake Rotary's campaign to woo the convention, said the international convention board visited Utah in June and July. The organization held its convention in Utah once before, he said, in 1919 at the Hotel Utah.

Last year, the outdoor retailer industry, which pumps $32 million into   the local economy during two annual trade shows, threatened to move to another city, citing the lack of space at the Salt Palace. City and county officials enticed them to stay indefinitely with the promise of a $52 million, 140,000-square-foot Salt Palace expansion. The expansion should be completed by 2006.

The Rotary convention will pump almost twice as much money into the economy as the annual Outdoor Retailer shows, Binger said. "The outdoor retailers gave us the ultimatum to expand, but we already had looked closely at the expansion and were confident we could attract other big conventions," Binger said.

"The Outdoor Retailer show is just a portion of what the community could gain from an expanded Salt Palace. It will help Salt Lake book $1 billion in conventions over the next decade."

On an annual basis, the new convention center should boost convention spending from $189 million to nearly $230 million, she said. Utah attracted the Rotarians for a combination of reasons, Binger said, including the Delta Air   Lines hub, proximity of the mountains, the expanded Salt Palace facilities, nearby hotels and the 2002 Olympics.

"The Winter Olympics and the volunteer effort during the Olympics," Binger said, "were not lost on the Rotary International."