Global events organizer Cvent says its about 16,000 members aren’t as keen on Las Vegas for conventions and meetings as they are Orlando and Chicago, but that could change soon.
Cvent recently announced Orlando and Chicago came in ahead of Las Vegas among preferred events destinations in the United States and said part of the reason is relatively high room prices and occupancy rates during large events.
Las Vegas has just under 150,000 hotel rooms and is averaging nearly 90 percent occupancy rates year-round on the Las Vegas Strip. Cvent says that kind of hotel occupancy rate makes it harder for its clients to book rooms in Las Vegas than in Orlando and Chicago.
But Las Vegas has many new hotel projects included among the many development projects along the Las Vegas Strip and near the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Genting Berhad just received the final approval it needs to build a 3,100-room hotel as part of its $4 billion Resorts World Las Vegas development, which Genting expects to open in 2019.
Wynn Resorts announced plans to add another 1,000 hotel rooms as part of an ambitious plan to replace its golf course with an outdoor water park, hotel, and retail area. The massive Fontainebleau project and its nearly 4,000 hotel room also could be revived if the right buyer is found soon.
Other hotel projects also are in the works, and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is undertaking a 10-year. $2.3 billion improvement of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Such projects so near the Las Vegas Convention Center, plus other convention center improvements recently completed along the Las Vegas Strip, should result in better rankings among Cvent clients.
With the pace of construction activity heating up on the Las Vegas Strip and elsewhere in the Las Vegas Valley, developer Harsch Investment Properties is confident the local market has rebounded from the Great Recession.
Harsch currently is developing a 240,000-square-foot expansion of the Henderson Commerce Center, which it expects to complete this year.
The commerce center’s expansion is typical of what the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance two years ago said the area needs to spur more industrial-level development.
Harsch owns some 8 million square feet of industrial space in the Las Vegas Valley, and says the pace of development is growing in the area, making such project necessary to continue spurring other developments, such as the $1 billion Faraday Future electric car plant being built in North Las Vegas.
Also helping boost confidence of developers like Harsch is the retail boom along the Las Vegas Strip, which largely was started by the Fashion Show Mall.
Anchored by prestigious retailers Saks Fifth Avenue and Nieman Marcus, the Fashion Show Mall demonstrated the viability of large-scale retail destinations on the Las Vegas Strip.
The mall opened on Valentine’s Day in 1981, and the 1.9 million-square-foot luxury retail space plans to add 24 new stores and other expansions.
Since then, other retail additions have been added at Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, the Palazzo, CityCenter, and other Strip developments, and Las Vegas now has one of the most impressive stretches of luxury retail stores anywhere in the world.
Retail stores once were virtually non-existent on the Las Vegas Strip. Now, they are integral parts of nearly every development plan.
Such developments along the Las Vegas Strip, should elevate Las Vegas’ already high status among the conventions and meetings industry, and help the city to regain Cvent’s top ranking.
