Las Vegas convention business up; visitor numbers down

from Tradeshow Week (9/25):

Convention Numbers Stable in July
Diane Taylor -- Tradeshow Week, 9/25/2008 5:51:00 PM

"When is no news good news? When the numbers indicate that so far, even with a struggling economy, convention business has not seen a fall-off in terms of numbers, compared with the same period in 2007.

In July, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority Executive Summary, convention attendance was .6-percent above a year earlier, and year-to-date convention attendance was .2-percent higher than in 2007 – not numbers to write home about, but perhaps better than other segments of the economy.

Although convention attendance held up in July, total visitor volume in Las Vegas decreased 4.6 percent from a year earlier. To attract more visitors, hotels have slashed prices, some 10-percent lower than this past year. As a result, the economic impact of conventions has, therefore, also declined, 3.7 percent from the same period in 2007 and 4.2 percent year-to-date." ...

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