Major Conventions Boost Vegas Tourism During Attendance Slump

LAS VEGAS, Nevada - As Reported by the Las Vegas Sun: "Strip resorts, restaurants, show producers and exotic dancers reeling from slumping tourism will get a boost in coming weeks with four major
  conventions and trade shows each bringing more than 80,000 attendees to town.

The largest of them, the International Consumer Electronics Show, anticipates 2,700 exhibitors, about the same as last year. But the figure represents the loss of 300 companies that are not coming this year, being replaced by 300 other companies attending for the first time.

And because of the recession's effect on the Strip, convention sponsors may not be complaining as much this year as they have in the past about exorbitant room rates or being forced into bundled convention packages that saddled them with minimum food-and-beverage guarantees.

The winter conventions are the best-attended shows of the year, including the largest, CES, which runs Thursday through Sunday; the return of the nation's largest homebuilder show after a four-year hiatus, the International Builders' Show, Jan. 20-23; and two longtime Las Vegas fixtures, the World of Concrete, Feb. 3-6, and MAGIC International, a major fashion industry show over Presidents Day weekend, Feb. 17-19.

Several other well-attended shows — smaller by Las Vegas standards but significant in their potential economic effect — in February. They are Surfaces 2009, a floor and fixtures show expected to draw 40,000 people, Feb. 3-5; the February World Market Center furniture exhibition, with more than 50,000 expected, Feb. 9-13; and the World Shoe Association Show, with attendance of about 30,000, Feb. 12-14..."

"The two months of activity couldn't come at a better time. Las Vegas limped through the end of 2008 with a decline in visitors of more than 3 percent for the first 10 months of the year compared with the previous year.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also reported that for those 10 months, the number of Las Vegas conventions and trade shows was down more than 4 percent, convention attendance was off nearly 4 percent and economic effect from attendees was down almost 7 percent to $6.9 billion..."