Construction continues on the JW Marriott Austin, 110 E. Second St., one of the several new hotels coming to Downtown Austin to capitalize on the city's popularity and tourism.

Jay Spurr, director of sales and marketing for JW Marriott Austin, said May 23 there has been a lot of excitement about the addition of the 1,012-room hotel.

"This hotel truly is a game-changer for the city," Spurr said. "It's allowing the city to attract associations and corporate conventions downtown that they weren't able to before."

Spurr said the number of rooms in the hotel is what allows new and larger conventions to come to the city.

"Some groups couldn't come to downtown because of there wasn't enough hotel rooms accommodate the attendants," Spurr said.

One such organization is the Professional Convention Management Association, which has already selected the city to host its 2017 Convening Leaders annual meeting. The convention could bring in about 3,000 people.

The hotel broke ground in August and currently has about six stories of the main tower framed above ground. As of May 15, more than 140,000 room nights were booked at the hotel, JW Marriott Austin officials said. Construction is expected to be completed by March 2015, prior to that year's South by Southwest Music and Media Conference.

Other hotels planned for the downtown area include a 1,031-room Fairmont Hotel and a 342-room Westin Austin Downtown Hotel.

For more news on hotel development and what it could mean for the city, check out our previous coverage.