Latest news with #SteveHill
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Las Vegas convention center renovation nears completion
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Las Vegas will soon be welcoming 1.9 million visitors a year which convention officials say wouldn't be possible without their newest multimillion-dollar renovation. A tour of the $600 million investment into the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) Central Hall showcased the new lights, LED screens, and roofing budgeted ten years ago. 'We stayed within budget,' Steve Hill, LVCVA president and CEO, said. 'But we did that by cutting out some of the work that we still need to do.' The eye-catching feature of the expansion, the 'ribbon roof', spreads from the West Hall to the Central Hall which covers the new 30 percent increase in space, according to Hill. 'When we have the full renovation done, we will have moved from 1.9 million square feet to two and a half million square feet,' he said. 'It's about a 30% increase in space, and we want to at least have a 30% increase in the economic activity.' Hill said the job creation which will come from the renovation is attributed to the thousands of construction positions and ancillary hospitality positions in the community. 'We employ about 300,000 people directly in the hospitality industry,' he said. 'The meetings part of the hospitality industry is about a quarter of that employment, about 70,000 jobs.' Amid overall decreasing visitation numbers for Las Vegas, Hill balked at any doubt of continued long-term growth for convention visitors. 'The convention group-trade show industry is about a sixth of the visitation to Las Vegas,' he said. 'And it has held its own this year, it has been a foundation for the city to build from.' Work on the Central Hall is expected to be completed by September with overall convention campus work done by December of 2025. Hill said the numbers show the better return of investment for Las Vegas is in convention visitors—pointing to averages spent per visit. 'The average visitor to Las Vegas spends about $1,200 per trip,' he said. 'The average convention attendee spends about a third more than that, they're in the $1,600 range… I've said this often, if we didn't have the strength of the meeting industry here, Las Vegas couldn't look like what Las Vegas looks like.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Reuters
7 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Report: Aces players receive another $100K with investigation in limbo
June 3 - Every player on the roster of the Las Vegas Aces will receive a $100,000 sponsorship fee, courtesy of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. That's according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which reported that all 13 players have signed an agreement for the 2025 season. It's the second consecutive season the tourism group and the Aces are partnering. After the first deal was announced last May, the WNBA announced it was launching an investigation. Steve Hill, the president of the LVCVA, told the Review-Journal on Monday that his group has not been informed of the status of the investigation. "I don't know the inner workings of the league," Hill said. "I'm not looking to cause more of an issue, and it doesn't seem like there's an issue there. So we're just moving forward." Please also have benefited from perks such as concert tickets as part of the sponsorship agreement. As for the benefits for the organization, the report said social media views of the players' interactions with its membership at the time of the 2024 deal announcement received at least 2.2 million views on the X platform alone. "The announcement itself made it a success, just all by itself," he said. "There was an awful lot of attention and eyeballs on Las Vegas." The players' commitment is to represent Las Vegas at various events, including at the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, and the deal was agreed to directly with the players and didn't have team input. Hill said the LVCVA's sponsorship agreement was never intended to help the Aces skirt the league's salary cap. Pay in the league in 2024 ranged from the mid-$60,000s to a $242,000 supermax deal. "This was not in coordination with the team, and there was not an attempt to support the salary cap," Hill said, per the report. "It's just a sponsorship that helps draw attention to the pay levels of players. So getting those ambassadors out there and making them a part of our marketing effort has been great." --Field Level Media
Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Report: Aces players receive another $100K with investigation in limbo
Every player on the roster of the Las Vegas Aces will receive a $100,000 sponsorship fee, courtesy of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. That's according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which reported that all 13 players have signed an agreement for the 2025 season. It's the second consecutive season the tourism group and the Aces are partnering. After the first deal was announced last May, the WNBA announced it was launching an investigation. Steve Hill, the president of the LVCVA, told the Review-Journal on Monday that his group has not been informed of the status of the investigation. "I don't know the inner workings of the league," Hill said. "I'm not looking to cause more of an issue, and it doesn't seem like there's an issue there. So we're just moving forward." Please also have benefited from perks such as concert tickets as part of the sponsorship agreement. As for the benefits for the organization, the report said social media views of the players' interactions with its membership at the time of the 2024 deal announcement received at least 2.2 million views on the X platform alone. "The announcement itself made it a success, just all by itself," he said. "There was an awful lot of attention and eyeballs on Las Vegas." The players' commitment is to represent Las Vegas at various events, including at the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, and the deal was agreed to directly with the players and didn't have team input. Hill said the LVCVA's sponsorship agreement was never intended to help the Aces skirt the league's salary cap. Pay in the league in 2024 ranged from the mid-$60,000s to a $242,000 supermax deal. "This was not in coordination with the team, and there was not an attempt to support the salary cap," Hill said, per the report. "It's just a sponsorship that helps draw attention to the pay levels of players. So getting those ambassadors out there and making them a part of our marketing effort has been great." Field Level Media
CBS News
31-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Las Vegas may still dazzle, but its sparkle is coming at a steeper price: "No longer a bargain vacation"
Las Vegas — The "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is usually the first stop for millions of tourists. But the line to snap a photo is noticeably shorter this spring as inflation, which has brought on higher prices for visitors, has hit "Sin City" hard. "We were here last year, almost exactly the same time," John Fischer, who is visiting from the United Kingdom, told CBS News. "And it was probably 20% more [expensive] this year." U.K. tourist Stuart Woodfall said he was surprised to pay $9 for a coffee. "In the U.K., we pay 4 pounds, 5 pounds for a coffee? So yeah, crazy," Woodfall said. Those higher prices haven't stopped convention traffic, but casual trips are down. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said 3.39 million people visited in March, down 7.8% from the same time last year. April saw a 5.1% drop in visitors from April 2024. Hotel occupancy also slipped, as the average nightly rate on the Las Vegas Strip reached $203 in April, the LVCVA said, up from $194 at the same time last year. The hotel occupancy rate rate in April was 84.5%, down slightly from 85.5% in April of 2024. "I think what's driving that largely now is just a drop in consumer confidence," Steve Hill, CEO and president of the LVCVA, told CBS News. Hill says big resorts can absorb a few empty rooms if the price is right. "The philosophy in Las Vegas prior to the pandemic was, at any cost, fill a room," Hill said. "Now, that has moderated somewhat. And so there is a balance point that they have found that is actually a little bit below the occupancy that we saw at a peak, which was about 88% in 2019. They're comfortable in that 85% range at a little higher price." Another sore spot is that Las Vegas is seeing fewer international visitors, Hill explains. They are the ones who generally tend to stay longer and spend more. "It's an investment in a trip, and we're typically a bucket list," Hill said. "They want to come here, spend more days, really enjoy the experiences that are here. And so when we lose them, we're losing a very valuable customer." Tourists who do roll the dice in Vegas are currently dealing with heavy vehicle traffic. Months of construction and road closures for special events can turn a 10-minute ride into a crawl on the Strip. "We've had so many customers say, 'We're never coming back to this city, you can't get anywhere,'" said Will Tryon, co-owner of Adventure Photo Tours, which he operates with his wife Donna Tryon. Their company does tours in the surrounding region, including the Grand Canyon, Area 51, Zion National Park and Death Valley. The couple said higher fuel and insurance costs leave little room to cut prices. Some tours priced at $75 before the COVID-19 pandemic are now $109. "The economy, the money, they don't have the money to spend," Donna told CBS News. "And the fact is that Las Vegas is no longer a bargain vacation." Even so, plenty of visitors are still shelling out for hot tickets like Dead & Company's residency at the Sphere this spring, and Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Tour, which is coming to Allegiant Stadium in July. "It's like, you can go for the fancy experience, but then you can find a place that's a pretty good price," said Marc Kutzin, who is visiting from New York. The summer calendar is full of concerts, festivals and sporting events, and Hill believes the city will be resilient. "Las Vegas is gonna respond to this," Hill said. "We are going to have a great summer."
News.com.au
28-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
100 businesses write to NSW Premier Chris Minns over Great Koala National Park
More than 100 businesses on the NSW Mid-North Coast have signed a letter to Premier Chris Minns, urging the Labor government to move forward with long-running plans for a massive koala sanctuary and tourism park. The Great Koala National Park was an election promise for NSW Labor, but delivery of the animal sanctuary and what form it will ultimately take has been marred by setbacks, including continued logging at the proposed site. In the letter, a coalition of businesses including from the adventure tourism and hospitality sectors, have called on the Premier to deliver the full 176,00ha park proposed, which they say will become a 'game-changing tourist destination. Coffs Skydiver owner Steve Hill said his business relied on the sort of tourists the park would attract, saying 'people that are interested in little fluffy koalas are interested in being in the outdoors, adventures'. 'We've had natural disaster after natural disaster so economically, it's been really tough on the Mid North Coast. This region needs this kind of level of tourism,' Mr Hill said. 'If you bring in a park that goes global – something like the Great Barrier Reef – we all know it will give us the boost that we badly need.' Matt Sparrius, owner of kayak and stand-up paddle board company C-Change, also backed the park as being 'great for our business'. 'For us, it's a no-brainer,' he said. 'The more koalas there are in the park, the more chances there are of seeing of them. 'For tourism, we will have more tourists, there will be more jobs, we can expand our business there will be other businesses that can move into that space. It will be wonderful.' 'Getting the full Great Koala National Park is really critical for us. If we don't get the full park, we won't get those corridors between areas. 'Apart from the koalas, having sugar gliders will also get people out in the park, into the environment.' The NSW government committed $80m over four years in the 2023-24 state budget to support development of the park, including independent economic, social and environmental assessments, and industry and community panels. But key questions remain. Chief among them is the final size of the park, which proponents want to span a whopping 176,000ha. The final size is yet to be determined by the state government, with reports of logging still taking place at the proposed site. If delivered as proposed, the park would span from Coffs Harbour to Woolgoolga. Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation and Mid-North Coast resident, Ken Henry, said delivery of the full park would be a boon for businesses and a 'truly special destination that will put the region on the global tourism map'. 'The declaration can't come soon enough,' the former federal bureaucrat said. 'Every moment we hesitate means losing more koalas and missing crucial opportunities for regional tourism operators to create jobs.' WWF Australia president Judy Slatyer said the 'bold and beautiful' park, if fully realised, would conserve and regenerate forests where not only 12,000 endangered koalas live, but also some 36,000 endangered greater gliders. 'Affected timber workers and regional communities need to be well supported to secure jobs, build their communities and create a future as the park is created,' she said. Footage released earlier this year by the WWF showed logging heavily machinery continue to be operated within Sheas Nob State Forest, island from Coffs Harbour. A previous analysis by the North East Forest Alliance claimed logging has already occurred across 7185ha within the assessment area since the state election, with another report by Wilderness Australia and the National Parks Association of NSW stating in March that a further 1924ha within the proposed park was then being logged.
