NATCHEZ &045; Natchez Tourism Director Walter Tipton said Wednesday a new motel planned for nearby Vidalia isn’t likely to have a major impact on Natchez’s hotel market.

Construction is set to start in September or October at Vidalia’s Concordia Square Shopping Center on a 62-room Best Western motel, with construction finished in summer 2006, Vidalia officials announced Tuesday.

Fred Bayles, a West Monroe, La.-based businessman, said that with construction on the Vidalia Gateway Center set to start within 30 days on the riverfront, the time was right to build such a motel.

The City of Natchez is still working to attract a developer to build a convention-grade hotel on a city-owned lot across Canal Street from the Natchez Convention Center.

However, the Best Western isn’t likely to influence those plans &uot;because we’re looking for a hotel that will go right next to the convention center,&uot; Tipton said.

Tipton and other city officials have said several larger conventions have declined to come to the area due to lack of hotel rooms &045; especially rooms convenient to the convention center.

Natchez’s current hotel market includes 980 hotel rooms and 180 bed-and-breakfast rooms with an average occupancy of 60 percent, according to Tipton’s figures.

Whether the Vidalia motel will influence the Natchez at all depends on the time of year, Tipton said.

For example, when an event such as the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race is happening, &uot;we need all the rooms we can get,&uot; Tipton said.