Vegas Jackpot: Wooing Meetings Is Paying Off Big

28.09.2003, Lesen Sie hier den Bericht über «Vegas Jackpot: Wooing Meetings Is Paying Off Big»

Attending a trade show anytime soon? Pack some sunscreen and money for slot machines, because it's a good bet you're going to Las Vegas.

With three of the nation's 10 largest convention centers, the gaming Mecca has become a juggernaut in the trade-show and convention business.

It's sucking business away from meeting centers in Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago and beyond. Stiff competition among the city's three 1million-square-foot-plus centers - combined with a slow economy and a convention-space building boom elsewhere - is helping to drive down prices for meetings nationally, as much as 10 percent to 20 percent by some estimates.

Los Angeles convention officials recently offered more than $100,000 in discounts to two shows - a big nursing convention and a tech conference. But both ultimately picked Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is even pursuing smaller meetings that won't fill an entire convention center. Some of the nation's largest trade shows go to Las Vegas.

They include the annual tech confab Comdex, which even in recent down years still draws more than 100,000 attendees, and the Consumer Electronics Show, a showcase of everything from high-definition televisions to video-game consoles to camera phones.

The city's roster of big shows is only increasing. The National Association of Homebuilders brought 92,000 attendees to the city this year after meeting last year in Atlanta. And after 26 years in Dallas, the Promotional Products Association in Irving, Texas, moved its annual gathering to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center this year.

Las Vegas has easy airport access and is served by big discount airlines, including Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, that keep fares relatively low. Indeed, air fares to Las Vegas have declined in recent months, according to the city's tourism office.

Slagle figures the average room rate paid by convention-goers was $40 less per night than what they would have paid for an equivalent hotel in Dallas. Those staying at the Luxor Casino & Hotel, adjacent to the Mandalay Bay center, paid $89.

The Las Vegas effect is apparent in numbers published annually by Tradeshow Week, the industry's trade journal. In 1990, Las Vegas accounted for 14.9 percent of the space rented by the nation's top 200 trade shows. It was a distant second to Chicago, with an 18.8 percent market share.

By last year, Las Vegas had grown its share to 26.1 percent, almost double its closest competitor, Chicago. And that was before the 1 million-square-foot Mandalay Bay Convention Center opened in January.

The city's other big centers are the 1.1million-square-foot Sands Expo and Convention Center and the 2million-square-foot Las Vegas Convention Center.

The other big winner during this period is Orlando, which has a 9 percent share, up from 1 percent in 1990.

The success of Las Vegas and Orlando reflects a migration of trade shows and conventions to Sun Belt climes supported by the infrastructure of large tourist destinations.

Both are expected to grow market share, but the dominance of Las Vegas will become even more dramatic.

By capitalizing on its ample convention space, hotel rooms at all price levels, Sun Belt weather, active nightlife and easy airport access, the city will steal as much as four to six percentage points more in market share of big conventions from its top competitors over the next several years.

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