Irrepressible Las Vegas Remains an Attraction for Business Tourists
Between January and May this year, the number of business tourists who participated in conventions was almost two million, an increase of nearly 200 percent compared to the first five months of 2021. And that’s taking into account the international restrictions in place everywhere.
Las Vegas conferences and conventions are still an attraction for business travelers.
Visitor numbers are gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels, and corporate bodies are ready to pay premium prices. Hotel rates increased by more than a quarter in May this year than they were before the pandemic.
There were two million participants at the events and conferences in Las Vegas in the first five months of this year, according to numbers recently released by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. It was the center of attraction during the pandemic, and the city seems set to continue its run as a famous corporate destination.
In 2021, the number of business travelers during the same five-month period was a little over 200,000 and increased by 878 percent to 1,999,900 business travelers this year.
The total number of business and leisure tourists in May alone was over 3.4 million, higher than May 2021 by almost 20 percent, but still 7 percent less than May 2019 numbers. However, May 2022 recorded up to 25.1 percent average daily rates more than May 2019.
Though the authority attempts to showcase an irrepressible destination, reports reveal that international tourism is yet to make a full recovery. Jim Gibson, the Commission Chair at Clark County said that Las Vegas had resumed all pre-pandemic conventions, but attendance levels were still low.
He also said, “We predicted probably 2024 before we were fully back. I think that one could make the argument that it may happen earlier.” The report also stated that new tourism offices had been opened in Canada, Mexico, Germany, and the UK by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Meanwhile, companies have spent more on conferences than in 2019, as part of their total business travel budgets, and will likely spend up to 4 percent more in 2022 than in 2019, as revealed by a recent poll by the Global Business Travel Association.
The 28th Business Travel Recovery Poll was conducted last month and revealed that industry events, trade shows, and conferences took up 21 percent of budgets, coming behind customer and prospect meetings at 31 percent of budgets. Internal meetings with colleagues came in at 17 percent.
“In-person meetings are on the top of the list for where companies are allocating their business travel spend this year,” the association reported.
On July 10, Korean Air joined the list of airlines resuming flights to Las Vegas. The pandemic had led to a suspension of flights from Seoul since March 2020.
