In the last few years, the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) has undergone radical changes, first with the opening of the $1 billion West Hall project in 2021 and now with the ongoing $600 million South Hall renovations.
At a media event on January 8, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) CEO Steve Hill said that the building now offers north of 2.5 million square feet of meeting space, which will allow for a larger and broader slate of events in the future, perhaps as much as 100 additional shows.
“Our leisure travelers have the best experience in the world when they come to Las Vegas. Our business travelers expect the same thing and we want to deliver that promise,” Hill said, as reported by the Nevada Independent.
Over the last two years, Las Vegas has seen a big uptick in business travel and convention attendance, which was long viewed as one of the last post-Covid laggards alongside international travel.
The LVCVA said that from January through November of 2023, the city had tallied convention attendance of approximately 5.8 million, which is 21 percent higher than the same period in 2022. The LVCC accounted for 1.2 million of those attendees, across 48 shows.
With December still yet to be tallied, overall visitor volume sits at 37.4 million, which is a year-over-year increase of 5 percent.
“Our customers have learned there are opportunities to build on or expand the experience,” Hill said, per the Independent. “We probably have 500,000 people in town (for NFR) over those 10 days who come here for the experience.”
The $600 million South Hall project, which was funded by a combination of LVCVA reserve funds, bonds and room taxes, resulted in a new entrance with its own parking lot, renovations to the existing exhibit hall, new corporate offices and a new boardroom.
“We gave the South Hall a real entrance that allows us to market and sell [the space] to potential new customers that we haven’t had in the building,” Hill said, per the Independent. “It feels welcoming. Those kinds of things matter to our existing shows. We’ve opened this part of the Convention Center to smaller shows that we haven’t been able to fit into the building. They’re excited about that opportunity.”
