Las Vegas: In Last 90 Days, Groups Canceled 340 Events
March 12, 2009
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), 340 Las Vegas events have been cancelled in the past 90 days, costing the local economy an estimated $131.6 million in lost spending.
So said a report this week from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which blamed the cancellations not only on the broader economic recession, but also on the criticism doled out by President Barack Obama and leaders in Congress, who have publicly scolded companies such as AIG, Wells Fargo and Northern Trust Bank for accepting federal bailout money, then proceeding with meetings and events that had been scheduled to take place in Las Vegas and other "luxury" resort destinations.
"Forget apology-seeking letters," wrote the Review-Journal's Benjamin Spillman. "Maybe Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman should send President Barack Obama a bill."
According to Spillman's report, the city's 340 cancelled events would have brought local resorts a combined 111,800 guests and a cumulative 236,700 room nights, not to mention millions of likely dollars in gaming revenue, as the LVCVA's figure—$131.6 million—includes only non-gaming spending.
"When we don't have meetings here, people are losing their jobs," Chuck Bowling, executive vice president of Mandalay Bay hotel-casino, told the Review-Journal. "The victims are the men and women who are working in our industry and the people we have to lay off."
Making matters worse, according to the LVCVA, is the fact that overall visitation to Las Vegas is down compared to last year. In January, it reported this week, fewer than 2.8 million people visited Las Vegas, down 11.9 percent from January 2008. Convention attendance, meanwhile, was 538,415 in January 2009, down 20.6 percent from 677,978 in 2008. Even room revenue is down, thanks to an average daily room rate that was 19.9 percent lower than it was last year, at less than $105.
Given its sobering numbers, the LVCVA board voted unanimously this week to suspend at least until 2010 an $890 million renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The reason, it said, is that the organization is now facing a $7 million budget shortfall.
Said LVCVA Vice President of Finance Brenda Siddall, "It is the only solution which does not impact our mission of filling hotel rooms."
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