Las Vegas’s tourism body has thanked its travel trade partners for a “positive” response in the wake of a mass shooting spree at a music festival, which left 58 dead and 546 injured.
Speaking at World Travel Market in London, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said the city had seen “support across the industry” from operators, airlines and other US tourism bodies including NYC&Co, but that it had not seen any noticeable dip in forward bookings following the incident on October 1.
Senior vice president of marketing, Cathy Tull, said: “We really appreciate all the travel trade partners that carried the message that it was okay to come. The travel trade really helped us get the message out there that Las Vegas was open for business.
“Our community really came together with #vegasstrong. Coming out of the unfortunate events, we will be seeing some additional safety measures, especially around festival-style events.
“We have done some research since the shooting and safety isn’t the biggest concern for people. They still want to come to Vegas.”
Building work will begin on a new convention centre in January; Wynn Las Vegas is opening a new 900-room tower and lagoon offering water sports; while MGM Grand and Caesars Palace are both upgrading rooms. The city has also developed new sports product, starting construction on a new American football stadium in January 2018, and attracting new hockey and women’s basketball teams.
An updated sports module was part of the relaunched agent training programme, which went live in September. More than 200 agents have so far attended pub quiz-style training evenings since the relaunch, with more events to come before the end of the year.
UK account director, Russell Meara, said: “We have updated the section on sports, which is huge in the city now. We have to keep refreshing it because Vegas is always changing.”