Las Vegas tourism officials unveiled a national ad campaign this week in an attempt to draw fans to the “ultimate destination to watch and experience sports.” But they are also waiting to see if the Raiders’ new policy of allowing only vaccinated fans to enter Allegiant Stadium will curtail visitation.
Lori Nelson-Kraft, senior vice president of communications for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, told the CCIM Southern Nevada chapter for commercial real-estate executives that the same wait-and-see approach applies to conventions as well, after it was announced this week that CES will require attendees at its January trade show be vaccinated.
Nelson-Kraft said that the leading move by CES, which traditionally attracts about 170,000 attendees, is likely to trigger other conventions and trade shows to do the same. The nation is in the midst of its fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and trade shows will do what’s important for their customers, she said.
“I think it’s a tremendous commitment by these private enterprises to make some of those really tough decisions,” Nelson-Kraft said. “It’s really important that our visitors, our employees, and our community feel safe during this time. Those are good responsible decisions. Could there be an impact? Of course there could be an impact. We won’t know until the back end when Allegiant (with 65,000 seats) hosts its first (regular-season game in September on Monday Night Football) and there are empty seats. We’re hopeful. I’m optimistic that it will work in our favor. But what’s most important is we have to get past this pandemic. We’re sitting in a holding pattern until we can hit some of those key milestones.”
Even in the face of a rising infection rate and hospitalization caseload nationwide and in Nevada, Nelson-Kraft said large convention bookings remain on track for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022, but it’s too early to predict exact attendance at those shows. She said it will take some time for conventions to bounce back, because a lot of companies haven’t recovered economically.
Attendance is expected “to be a little lower for a while and everyone is okay with that,” Nelson-Kraft said. The most important step is simply returning to in-person events, rather than virtual, she added.
“Our convention customers remain committed,” Nelson-Kraft said. “Nothing replaces being there and getting deals done and shaking hands. You just can’t do that via Zoom. … Right now, we’re in the early stages of recovery, but since World of Concrete (in June), we have 35 additional shows of 5,000 people or more that are all committed. There may be fewer exhibitors and attendees, but confidence is growing even with the new wave and state mask mandate. There’s still support. We haven’t seen cancellations inside the Convention Center. We’ve addressed concerns and made sure everyone feels okay. We’re not putting pressure on. It has to feel right for those trade shows. Fingers crossed. You’re going to keep looking at our visitation numbers and continuing to see the increases we’ve been seeing since March.”
The national sports ad that launched Tuesday is titled “The Greatest Arena on Earth.” It highlights Las Vegas as “the ultimate destination to watch and experience sports.” Madison Square Garden in New York City goes by “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”
The ad touts not only the Raiders, but also the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Aces, NBA Summer League, NASCAR, National Finals Rodeo, UFC, championship boxing, college football, college basketball, and other events.
“That is hot off the press and the timing with Allegiant Stadium opening its doors for fans,” Nelson-Kraft said. “We have really evolved into the capital of the sports world, with not only the venues, but the LVCVA heavily investing in bringing large citywide sporting events to town. We spend a significant amount of our marketing dollars attracting high-profile sporting events to draw visitors.”
In 2022, Las Vegas will host the NFL Pro Bowl and NHL All-Star weekend in February and NFL Draft in April.
It’s not only about sports.
With its new West Hall addition, the Las Vegas Convention Center has added 1.4 million square feet and is now the second largest convention center in the nation. The destination as a whole, with hotel partners, went from 11 million square feet to 14 million in the last couple of years, which will bring even more visitors, Nelson-Kraft said. Convention visitors, who spend more than the average tourists and are key to filling room occupancy midweek, started to return to Las Vegas in June for the World of Concrete show.
Before the pandemic, conventions brought $11 billion to the Las Vegas economy with 6.6 million visitors a year, Nelson-Kraft said. Those visitors are needed to build on the recovery.
Las Vegas registered 2.97 million visitors in June, 70% of the June 2019 total. Hotel occupancy was 76% compared to nearly 92% in June 2019. The difference was weekday occupancy at 71%, down from 90% in June 2019.
Convention business is vital, especially now that domestic air travel “has all but recovered,” Nelson-Kraft said. There are 446 daily-round trip flights in and out of McCarran International Airport and more than 75,000 seats are full of people inbound on a daily basis, she said.
“We have more direct flights from more markets domestically than we did in 2019,” Nelson-Kraft. “We’re making up for the lack of international visitation due to travel restrictions. They’re balancing each other out.”
