LV convention center expansion complete

Lisa Snedeker

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 | 10:44 a.m.

Las Vegas tourism officials hope a new year and more exhibit space will boost the number of conventioneers, who are needed to fill the city's more than 124,000 hotel rooms during slower weekday periods.

Despite a sharp decline in tourism and convention business immediately after Sept. 11, the Las Vegas Convention Center debuted its $170 million, 1.3-million-square-foot expansion Monday.

The completion of the South Hall expansion coincided with the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show, the world's largest trade show for consumer technology, and one of the city's biggest annual conventions.

"Shows like CES have been waiting a long time for us to increase our space here," said Erika Brandvik, spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

While CES numbers are down slightly from last year's record 126,000 participants, tourism officials said the estimated 110,000 expected to attend the electronics show through Friday are in line with previous shows in 2000 and 1999, organizers said.

The 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space, however, will make it the largest CES convention to date by that measure, according to CES spokeswoman Lisa Fasold.

CES, which represents more than 650 U.S. technology companies, brought Las Vegas an estimated $155.3 million in non-gambling revenue last year, said Kevin Bagger, senior research for the convention authority.

"We don't have an estimate for this year because, in general, visitor spending patterns are a lot more volatile since Sept. 11," Bagger said.

Las Vegas relies on convention visitors to fill rooms that otherwise would stand vacant between weekends, when hotels generally are booked.

Las Vegas plays host to more of Tradeshow Week's Top 200 conventions -- 33 of the largest trade shows in North America -- than anywhere else in nation.

In comparison, Chicago and Orlando host 22 and 14 shows, respectively, the convention centers and the industry trade magazine reported.

In part because of the Las Vegas Convention Center's expansion that includes 51 meeting rooms, CES organizers have scheduled show dates through 2022, organizers said.

That's good news for a city that has seen as many as 15,000 layoffs on the Las Vegas Strip since Sept. 11.

In November Comdex attendance was down for the annual technology show by as much as 40 percent by some estimates and occupancy levels have continued to be off for midweek visits, statistics from the convention and visitors authority show.

For the first 10 months of 2001, overall midweek occupancy was off 4 percentage points to 84.1 percent at the city's hotels compared with 2000.

Healthy convention attendance for the first 8 1/2 months of last year helped keep the city's convention numbers above 2000 levels. The convention and visitors authority reported that 3.5 million conventioneers had visited Las Vegas through October, up 8.4 percent over the 3.2 million people in 2000.

Those numbers were up despite a 37.4 percent downturn in attendance in September and a 6 percent decrease in convention visits in October.

Convention bookings for 2002 are back up and keeping pace with record high levels, Brandvik said.

The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association Super Show is scheduled at the Venetian resort's attached Sands Expo Center Jan. 21-23. That show, expected to draw 50,000 people, will run at the same time as the National Association of Television Program Executives show at the Convention Center and the Las Vegas Hilton, an event expected to draw 20,000 people.

"Through June, convention bookings are almost 70 percent of capacity and that's through the next five years," Brandvik said. "In the industry, that's considered capacity."