Will Las Vegas Resorts Survive a Year of No Conventions?
Photo Credit: Analysts expect Las Vegas could go as long as a year without hosting a major event like the Consumer Electronics Show. Pixabay / skeeze
Skift Take
Can the show go on in Sin City while so many events and conventions can’t? Sure — if you have a few billion in the bank to tide your resorts over for a year.
A Las Vegas without conventions isn’t quite as unfathomable as the city without slot machines.
But a year without major group business like the Consumer Electronics Show is putting a severe dent in casino resort financial reports, and companies are scrambling to adjust business strategies to make it to 2021 and beyond.
“I don't want to predict [2021] because I don't feel I have enough insight into what might happen to the vaccine or the virus and no way to forecast that,” Las Vegas Sands Corp. President Rob Goldstein said during an earnings call last month. “But I would be less than honest if I didn't tell you that Las Vegas is in a very difficult place.”
Leaders of major gaming resort companies like Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts, and Wynn Resorts all emphasized on second quarter earnings calls that the convention business is a cash cow for Sin City — and the coronavirus-related snuff out of the vital business line is putting the city in a dire predicament.
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