A senior vice president of sales at Las Vegas Sands Corp. acknowledged the challenges that lie ahead for a convention industry that’s been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, but insisted that the meeting business will return strong. It will just take some time.
The Sands’ Chandra Allison was a featured speaker Tuesday during a discussion on the recovery of Las Vegas as part of the G2E virtual conference. The Global Gaming Expo was scheduled for the Sands Expo earlier this month and normally attracts upwards 30,000 visitors.
Las Vegas Sands confirmed Monday it was in preliminary talks with an advisor that could lead to a sale of its Las Vegas Strip gaming and convention operations. The issue did not come up at Tuesday’s virtual G2E discussion.
The news about the sale comes as Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said Monday he was working on a plan to increase capacity for conventions up to 50% in January. Sisolak recently increased the limit on gatherings from 50 to 250 and conventions can have as many as 1,000 with four groups of 250 each.
“Like everybody, we’ve all been devastated by this pandemic,” Allison said. “The Venetian was built on (convention) business and to suddenly have all of that business gone, we faced a huge uphill battle. Business travel to Las Vegas is extremely important to our community and jobs. The economic impact to our community is substantial, and we’ve been lucky at the Venetian that we haven’t had to lay off or furlough. Until this market starts to come back in a meaningful way, though, Las Vegas will not recover. What’s happened here is unfathomable, but we’re trying to rethink ways to host meetings safely and look at ways we can interact with our customers, go to market and conduct business as we continue along this road to recovery.”
The Sands worked with the resort community and its event partners to host a mock trade show occupying 296,000 square feet of space. They walked local and state health officials through the space to follow the guest experience: prior to arrival, arrival, and into the exhibit hall.
“We wanted to demonstrate how we can do meetings and events safely,” Allison said. “We were happy to show all of our state and local regulators how we can do this safely and give them some confidence as we begin to open up.”
Each person is thermally scanned and answers a health questionnaire on a daily basis. There are medical bays at entrances and a high priority is placed on cleaning and sanitization, Allison said.
There was also a lot of physical distancing at the mock trade show, which showed how group movement can be programmed, Allison said. They demonstrated food protocols that promote safety and social distancing.
“We’re also recommending trade shows move away from the exchange of business cards and giveaways,” Allison said.
Allison said the expansion of the limit to groups of 250 with a total of 1,000 is a “fantastic first step” and they support opening safely. “As we open back up, the occupancy limits will need to increase over time.”
Allison said Las Vegas is resilient and will recover, but it’s going to be gradual.
“It’s evident through all of our experiences with technology and Zoom that the desire to meet in person is very high and when it’s safe to do so, they will come back and meet face to face,” Allison said. “Las Vegas will be ready to do it better than anybody else in the country. That’s what we’re all committed to. Our group and convention customers have signaled in 2022 and beyond and even late next year that they want to get back to meeting in person. If anybody thought technology was going to take over the meetings and events industry, I think we have all seen it will not. It will enhance it and continue to create better experience and efficiency. We look forward to recovery when people will have the confidence to travel to Las Vegas.”
