A year ago 90,000 conventioneers from eight events visited Las Vegas. This month one event brought in 250 visitors.
Government officials and casino executives agree that the convention business won’t return without something approaching a cure for Covid-19, or more secure and safe sanitation protocols and that the city’s financial future is tied to the conventions. No one expects a strong return of conventions before the third quarter of 2021.
Unfortunately, Nevada, like the rest of the U.S. is being hit by a second coronavirus surge. The state recorded 1,857 new cases on a single day last week.
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has asked residents to stay at home as much as possible the next two weeks to try to limit the virus’s spread.
Nevertheless, hope springs eternal and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority lists 36 conventions on calendar for the first half of next year. According to one trade show coordinator, it “all depends on what happens in Las Vegas.”
MGM Resorts International has released a plan for holding conventions that it hopes can be used to bring them back beginning early in 2021. It held its largest conference since the pandemic began last month when 200 attended the National Credit Union Collections Alliance’s annual meeting at the Bellagio.
MGM’s Vice President of Administration, John Flynn, hailed the event as a “big deal” and added,
“Finally, after eight months, we were able to bring a large conference back to Bellagio, here in Las Vegas,” he said. “We’re going to build on this and keep going.”
Las Vegas Sands Corp’s COO Robert Goldstein said there is a demand for large shows beginning early next year but government-imposed capacity restrictions could push that back. He doesn’t expect business to begin to recover until the second half of 2021.
Goldstein said during an investors conference call, “We’ve got to see group (business) come back. I think that there’s going to be demand, but we’ve got to change some things structurally to get people in the buildings.”
Caesars Entertainment Inc. CEO Tom Reeg told investors that the company has “record business” booked beginning in the second half of next year.
Colin Mansfield, a director for corporate finance for Fitch Rating, agrees that the convention business won’t return strong before mid-2021. He told the Review-Journal: “Event planners and attendees need to be able to plan several months or years out and have the confidence that they are not endangering the event attendees.”
The news that both Pfizer and Moderna have vaccines that could be released before the end of the year could accelerate the return of conventions, but how quickly they will be able to be ramped out remains a gray area.
Currently Nevada allows events indoors and outdoors from 50 to 250 attendees. Planners can apply to host events with as many as 1,000 attendees, but must keep groups of 250 separated.
Last month Sisolak announced he wanted to lift some capacity restrictions early next year to attract conventions, but that was before the current surge in cases, which includes the governor himself. He is the fifth U.S. governor to contract the virus.
The 66-year-old governor announced he had no symptoms of the virus, except for being tired. He found out he had the virus after a routine swab test.
Virginia Valentine, president of the Nevada Resort Association, says the conventions will probably need to return slowly, with smaller but safer events. “These smaller events are important to demonstrate that we can do it safely,” she told the Review-Journal. “With testing capacity significantly increased, the additional contact tracing personnel in place and the continued utilization of the Covid Trace app, the community has many more tools on hand today than eight months ago which should help us improve the current situation.”
Mansfield and other analysists issued a Fitch report last month that predicted the Las Vegas Strip will bounce back slower than any other gaming market, in part because of its reliance on conventions. A full return might take as long as four years, they wrote.
The virtual convention is taking up some of this slack, hastened by necessity.
