Las Vegas conventions serve as hopeful signs for meetings industry’s future

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John Locher / AP

People walk through the convention floor at the ASD Market Week convention Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021, in Las Vegas.

Mon, Sep 20, 2021 (8:45 p.m.)

The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics conference on the Strip this week was the reason for the first substantial trip Christopher Helmick has taken since the start of the pandemic early last year.

A claims compliance professional in the insurance industry, Helmick hadn’t strayed far from his Michigan home for more than a year before arriving at Aria for the small convention over the weekend.

“I was nervous about coming here,” Helmick said. “I am being safe, and it looks like Las Vegas is taking the proper precautions. Virtual events are great, but you can’t beat in-person networking.”

International convention-goers might not be far behind Helmick in returning to Las Vegas on a more consistent basis.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced that international travel restrictions would be lifted in November for those vaccinated against the coronavirus. U.S. officials have for over a year restricted travelers coming to the U.S. from Iran, China, India, and a group of European countries, including the United Kingdom.

In town this week for the U.S. Travel Association’s annual IPW inbound travel trade show, association president Roger Dow said the decision to limit restrictions is good news for Las Vegas.

“This was a big announcement for the country, but I think a bigger announcement for Las Vegas,” Dow said. “All the conventions Las Vegas holds, whether it’s the World of Concrete show or CES, all those shows rely on having a huge international component. It’s perfect that this announcement came while we were here in Vegas.”

Historically, the biggest international feeder country for Las Vegas visitation has been Canada, closely followed by Mexico, then the United Kingdom. In 2019, close to 1.5 million Canadians visited Las Vegas, along with another 1.1 million from Mexico, according to figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. About 740,000 visited from the United Kingdom that year.

“International visitors are an exceptionally important part of our customer base,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the authority. “That’s both from a leisure standpoint and a meetings standpoint.”

Dow said he’s been impressed this week with how busy the Strip has been. That’s despite the fact, he said, that the majority of travelers are here on leisure trips.

In 2019, 6.6 million people attended conventions in Las Vegas, which represented about 14% of the approximately 42 million people who visited the city in 2019, according to the authority. Figures weren’t tracked for most of 2020 because of the pandemic.

“Hotels are jumping,” Dow said. “Just wait until we get the business and convention market back. It will really be spectacular then.”

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