Letter from America
When will live events
return to The Strip?
Stephanie Selesnick looks behind the mask in Vegas for any tells
on when and how the smart bet is for reopening
he short answer to the
headline question is
‘We don’t know’. Given
a non-existent national
policy on fighting Covid-19 in the
United States, US state governors
and local officials have been left
to make the decisions on stay-athome
orders, quarantines, face
mask wearing policies, criteria for
phased openings, and so on. In a well
documented case in Georgia, that
state’s governor and Atlanta’s mayor
had sharp disagreements, going as
far as taking their differences to court
over mandating of mask wearing. The
governor was opposed.
The Las Vegas Strip is the capital of
the United States exhibition business
with over 150,000 hotel rooms and
three venues in excess of 100,000sqm
(over one million square feet).
Las Vegas Valley includes a number
of cities and unincorporated parts of
Clark County. The Strip is not, in fact,
located in the City of Las Vegas, but
rather is part of unincorporated areas
of Paradise and Winchester. I have
called Downtown Las Vegas home the
last seven years.
It’s fair to say that this city is
built on face-to-face engagement
– whether it be corporate events,
weddings, bachelor/bachelorette
parties, concerts, shows, conventions
or exhibitions. This is a city built on
hospitality. In 2019 there were over
42.52m visitors to Las Vegas. January
and February 2020 were pacing
ahead of those numbers until the
Covid-19 shutdown mid-March.
According to figures from the Las
Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority
(LVCVA), in May 2020, the middle of
the shutdown, there were 151,000
visitors, none of whom were in town
Below:
Stephanie
Selesnick
www.lvcva.
com/research/
visitor-statistics
for conventions and exhibitions.
Compare that with May 2019 which
had 3,691,000 visitors of which
520,800 people attended business
events. That’s down in both visitor
volume (95.9%) and in convention
attendance (100%).* Ouch!
On 18 March, 2020 The Strip
went dark (although, in all honesty,
with Covid-19 hitting much of the
world, some hotels had previously
announced temporary closures).
Bars, restaurants, many shops, offices,
gyms and salons were shuttered.
For almost three months The World
Famous Las Vegas Strip became The
World Famous Bike Path. It became
“a thing” for locals to do – including
families – to ride down the middle of
Las Vegas Blvd. taking photos in front
of empty resorts like tourists.
That was then. The State is now
in Phase 2 reopening. About threequarters
of the Las Vegas resorts
and casinos are open and airlift is
up. Leisure business is driving in
from neighboring California and
Arizona (both hot spots as we go to
press), especially on the weekends.
Gatherings of up to 50 people (up
from 10) is permitted, while allowing
for social distancing. Inside dining
is still permitted at 50% occupancy,
same with gyms and salons.
With the rise in Covid-19 cases, the
Governor rolled bars back to Phase 1
in early July so those establishments
not serving food were again closed.
A mask wearing mandate is also in
place for everyone out public, while
waiting in line to enter a public space,
or when outdoors and it’s not possible
to maintain six feet (1.5m) of social
distancing.
Casinos and resorts along The Strip
are conducting temperature checks to
all who enter and masks are required
by employees and guests alike when
on property. There are sanitation
stations in place and visitors are
encouraged to wash their hands.
Even though we’ve gone from
30.1% unemployment in April to 15%
in July, Nevada still has the highest
unemployment rate in the country.
Trust me when I say we all want to get
back to the business of hosting worldclass
exhibitions and business visitors.
Smart safety plans are in place and
tradeshows are still on the books for
the last quarter of 2020. Sadly, when
we open is not up to us.
22 Issue 4 2020 www.exhibitionworld.co.uk