Trade publication says Las Vegas leads in top tradeshows

The annual survey by the tradeshow publication Tradeshow Week shows that Las Vegas hosted 32 of the top 200 conventions in 1997. Chicago was second with 24 of the top shows, followed by New York City and Atlanta with 18 each, Anaheim, Calif. with 13, Dallas and Orlando, Fla. with 11 each, New Orleans and San Francisco with 10 each and Los Angeles with 9 of the top 200 shows.

Las Vegas also rented more net square feet of meeting space to the top 200 shows than any other city, renting 14.3 million square feet in 1997. Chicago was second with 10.4 million, followed by Atlanta with 6 million, New York City with 4.8 million, Louisville, Ky. with 4.1 million, Anaheim with 3.1 million, New Orleans 2.9 million, Dallas 2.7 million and San Francisco 2.4 million.

Las Vegas currently has 4.2 million square feet of meeting space citywide and will increase that number to 6 million by the year 2000.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said the city hosted a total of 3,700 conventions in 1997. Their non-gaming economic impact was $4.4 billion.

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