Gambling on the corporate dollar

Las Vegas – home to neon lights, 24-hour gaming and drive-through weddings – is trying to attract a new type of visitor to the oasis in the desert: with nine million square feet of meeting room space and over 140,000 guestrooms, Vegas is realizing the potential spending power of the corporate client – with pharma one of its top targets.

It is this hospitality that is turning the gambling capital of the world into a hub for conventions and trade shows. The destination attracted 44 million visitors in 2005, but is still trying to remould itself as a luxury destination with sophisticated amenities on hand. And when pharmaceutical executives want to unwind, the destination offers all manner of entertainment including gaming, shopping, dining, golf, tours and many more attractions.

Vegas plays host to 26,000 meetings a year. Despite the enormity of some of the headline-grabbing trade shows, the vast majority cater for groups of 500 or less. The majority of conventions are held at the 3.2 million-square-foot Las Vegas Convention Centre, while most of the luxury hotels offer sumptuous surroundings for boardroom meetings. Planners are not getting complacent with the visitor numbers, though. Work is in the pipeline to create another one million square feet of floor space, taking the total up to 10 million. The expansion within Vegas is massive and constantly ongoing, which is presenting groups with a wide variety of convention and meeting options. This year is expected to see more than 2000 hotel rooms created, more than 2200 condo-hotel units and 349,000 square feet of new convention space. Although gambling is the number one draw in town, Vegas is targeting the non-gaming crowd as well. The Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel is the largest non-gaming property in the destination. Situated next to the Las Vegas Convention Center, the 14-story hotel houses 548 guest rooms and has more than 32,000 square feet of function space.

Much of the available space used to be awarded to the high rollers in town dropping thousands, or even millions, of dollars at the tables. However, the hotels are now offering this space for corporate groups to use for meetings and functions. Corporate groups looking for that something extra cannot go far wrong than check into the Palms Casino Resort for their stay. The hotel features the Hardwood Suite, a 10,000-square-foot space with a basketball court, a giant whirlpool tub, a glass-walled second floor and enough beds to sleep at least 10 people. The suite also offers a locker room with personalized basketball jerseys for guests. The resort says it aims to attract the high-end corporate groups as well as the high rollers.

Meanwhile, another major project on the drawing board is a four-million-square-foot mixed-use casino, hotel and condominium scheme. The Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino is earmarked for a 2008 launch and will feature 2400 guest rooms, more than 150,000 square feet of convention space, a 1800-seat theater, and more than 300,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space. And not forgetting the gamblers – a 70,000 square foot gaming floor will also be on offer.

Corporate groups normally arrive in Vegas via McCarran International Airport. However, as visitor numbers have increased, so has the strain on the airport. This is why a third terminal is in development and expected to open by 2010. Visitor numbers fell after 9/11 but tourists and corporate groups numbers have risen again to new levels; McCarren expects to handle 55 million passengers by 2015, and the Department of Aviation is also planning to build a second airport to cope. Ivanpah Valley Airport (IVA) will be situated 25 miles south of Vegas between Primm and Jean, and will serve the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area. Construction is expected to begin later in the decade, with IVA handling it’s first passengers in 2014.

Once in Vegas, the monorail, which runs along the Strip, provides a much-needed link between the hotel and resorts. Corporate groups attending meetings and conventions need links to their destinations and all parts of Vegas are in easy reach. Some of the hotels are so large that business leaders don’t even have to leave the resort to attend their convention. One of the high-end resorts attracting attention is the Wynn Las Vegas. The US$2.5 billion resort has more than 2800 rooms and 200,000 square feet of meeting space, including the 50,000-square-foot Opal Ballroom. It can hold more than 5,000 people – 3300 for dinners and 4200 for receptions. The meeting space has views of the pools, gardens and golf course. Wynn claims that groups make up 42 percent of their clientele.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) sees these hotel and resorts as ideal for going after the corporate dollar. They have pulled out all the stops to draw in the visitors since 9/11, and demonstrated that Vegas is a top destination for the budget traveller or a group of corporate executives attending a convention. And with US$24 billion worth of construction and expansions planned through to 2009, Vegas is well on its way to becoming the home of the corporate convention.

THE VENETIAN HOTEL

With more than 1.9 million square feet of accommodating and flexible meeting space just minutes from your suite, The Venetian is the finest facility of its kind. Floor plans offer up to 270 flexible individual meeting rooms including the exquisite 85,000 square-foot Venetian Ballroom, the incomparable 71,000 square-foot Palazzo Ballroom, five expansive exhibit halls, 12 elegant ballrooms, five junior ballrooms, 27 intimate and unmatched hospitality suites and patrons and seven executive boardrooms – all just minutes from the exhibit hall floor, and just a three-minute walk from your personal suite.