International Travel to Vegas Up, Those Doing Business Down
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 10/3/2005
The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority has released a report indicating that a growing number of people traveled to the city from overseas last year. At the same time, a second LVCVA study shows a decrease in the number of foreign visitors who came for business, including conventions.
According to the LVCVA's international visitation report, 3.4 million people from foreign countries visited Las Vegas in 2004, compared with 2.8 million in 2003. But the most visited city in the United States still hasn't returned to pre-2001 levels for international travel. In 2000, the LVCVA reported, Las Vegas received 4 million overseas visitors, 15 percent more than last year.
The countries, outside of North America, where Las Vegas is most popular as a travel destination are the United Kingdom (sending 392,000 visitors last year), Japan (217,000), Germany (119,000), France (97,000) and Australia (82,000).
On the other hand, numbers of international travelers to Las Vegas on business declined from 2003 to 2004, according to the LVCVA's 2004 visitor profile. Of the international visitors to the city surveyed, 9 percent said their primary reason for coming to the city was a convention, tradeshow, corporate meeting or other business. That number was down from 2003, when 12 percent of international visitors surveyed said they were in Las Vegas for business.
While the international visitation report is based partly on data received from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Travel & Tourism, the visitor profile is based on the LVCVA's exit interviews of visitors leaving Las Vegas.
Chris Meyer, senior director of convention center sales for the LVCVA, said anecdotal data he collects from his clients indicates that international attendance at tradeshows is "way up" in 2005.
Backing up this claim, the Consumer Electronics Assn. reported that international attendance at Intl. CES, Las Vegas' largest annual tradeshow, increased by more than 20 percent from 2004 to 2005. Some 110 countries were represented at this year's show.
That was not the case in 2004, however, when CES organizers complained that more than 2,000 of the expected foreign attendees were unable to make it to CES due to difficulties obtaining a visa or getting into the United States. That year, the show received 7 percent fewer international attendees than anticipated.
