Las Vegas to see visitation bump for years from travel show, study says
All the tourism officials were touting its economic benefits, but now they have proof.
When the U.S. Travel Association’s trade show, IPW, came through Las Vegas in 2013, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority pulled out all the stops to welcome the group of 6,000 travel buyers, international journalists and representatives of U.S. destinations. There were showgirls, musical performances, culinary tours, wine tastings and shopping extravaganzas.
At the time, everyone spoke anecdotally about how big of a return Las Vegas would see as a result of the trade show coming to town. There were just no solid numbers to back it up — until now.
For the first time, the travel association commissioned a study to see how much return a host city receives for putting on a show.
Turns out, it’s a lot.
The report conducted by Rockport Analytics LLC, found that IPW will result in a 1.06 million increase in international visitors to Las Vegas the next three years. The trade show also will help increase tourism spending by $1.6 billion and have a direct economic benefit of $891 million.
“A city’s investment in IPW is the gift that keeps giving, paying dividends over three years in the form of more international visitors and spending in the host city and throughout the country,” U.S. Travel Association President Roger Dow said in a statement.
As a result of the 2013 IPW, 8.8 million additional international travelers will come to the U.S., increasing international spending by $28 billion.
The 46th annual IPW will be April 5-9 in Chicago.
Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.