Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Events boss: 40 million visitors is not enough

patchristenson

Christopher DeVargas

I don’t think there’s anything that would be better for the community than NASCAR,” Las Vegas Events President Pat Christenson says.

Pat Christenson is at the wheel of most major events in Las Vegas, whether it’s the Las Vegas Bowl, National Finals Rodeo or a New Year’s Eve party in which seven Strip hotels blast fireworks into the sky.

2014 brought a record number of visitors to Las Vegas, and developers broke ground on MGM Resorts International’s new festival venue on the north Strip and the 22,000-seat MGM Resorts Arena mid-Strip.

Christenson, president of Las Vegas Events, is forever busy, but his responsibilities as one of the city’s leading promoters and marketing officials are expected only to grow in 2015.

We just passed 40 million tourists who visited Las Vegas in 2014. What does that mean to someone who promotes the city?

For those of us who work in developing events that bring people to town, it’s another benchmark. It’s always nice to have benchmarks, and it’s always nice to shoot for the next benchmark.

Everybody is proud of getting to 40 million, but what is the next benchmark? We have to just keep trying to create events that will exceed what we already have accomplished. There is no stopping that process for us.

Are 40 or 41 million visitors a year going to be enough to fill the new room inventory we’re expecting over the next few years?

I know, working for the LVCVA and working with my staff, that 40 million isn’t enough. We will be continually looking for events, looking for conventions, looking for things that continue to push the envelope. Let’s maximize the number of visitors we can bring here through the different specific programs we have.

We are bringing 340,000 here for America’s Party on New Year’s Eve, with multiple hotels on the Strip and Fremont Street involved. That proves again that we can handle major events.

Las Vegas has a new identity as a mega-club and festival city. What are your thoughts about promoting that image?

We have two things we can develop over the next five to 10 years, and one is festivals. When you look at what has been going on and the different investments that have been made in festival sites and festivals, we have a great opportunity there.

Is it going to be a challenge to generate civic support, especially among competing resort companies, for the new arena since it is privately owned by MGM Resorts International?

If you look at the history of Las Vegas with the different special events all of the hotel properties have done, they all have supported them — even in the days when Caesars did their big title fights outdoors.

This is a state-of-the-art venue. There’s nothing like it in Vegas, and there might not be anything like it in the country. The fact that they are working on new, incremental events makes it incumbent on everybody to work together to bring and grow special events.

Is that true for resorts with their own venues to fill?

Yes. That’s part of what Las Vegas Events will do. We’ll work on targeting events that can integrate all the properties.

Our slogan is, “Your Event Connections.” We need to get involved in connecting the hotel properties and the event producer, and connect all the marketing for the events.

I don’t see that as a challenge. I see that as an opportunity. We’ve got the venues, and we’ve got the expertise.

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