Are Business Travelers Going Back to Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show?

Las Vegas would welcome a successful CES. It would take over the city’s hotels and restaurants, shops, clubs, and clubs, and hire vehicles in excess of $300 million. It would be a welcome event for airlines as it will show the return of business travelers. 30 percent of 2023 attendees will be made up of international travelers.

CES is eager to be back. The show was made entirely virtual in 2021 due to the pandemic. There were mixed reviews. e writer stated, “Overall, the CES virtual experience wasn’t great but organizers didn’t have a choice.” High infection rates meant that no one was willing to travel to Las Vegas with the 110,000+ attendees.

As a hybrid live+digital event, the show will return in January 2022. CES 2022 was marred by a COVID spike in winter. CTA refused to cancel the show after journalists, exhibitors, and others pleaded with them. Although CES promoted its health measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 during the show, CTA officials and partners at the Nevada Department of Public Health refused to release numbers on the number of attendees who had contracted COVID.

The show was attended by only 40,000 people in person and closed one day early. T-Mobile and Amazon were just a few of the companies that pulled out. A CNN reporter who reported on the troubled program noted that CNN would not attend.

The Clark County (Las Vegas), positivity rate reached 33% right after the show. CTA, its medical advisor and the Nevada Department of Health did not release statistics about COVID among attendees. However, it was reported that at most seventy employees from the 340 Korean companies who attended the show, which included SK and Hyundai, were positive. Samsung chartered an aircraft in order to transport 20 COVID-positive employees to South Korea.

CTA projects positive numbers for the 2023 show, despite previous problems

A different attitude toward the pandemic is part of the reason. A Federal judge declared that the CDC had overstepped its authority in insisting on masks for aircraft. The CDC’s demand for masks on aircraft came to an abrupt and unlamented halt, with incidents of passenger violence falling 74%. On September 18, 2022, President Biden declared the pandemic over in “60 Minutes”.

After being in quarantine for over two years and receiving three COVID shots, my personal experience was that I finally came down with COVID in May 2022. Ironically, it was acquired at another Las Vegas convention. It was my first in over two years. However, my case was milder than many others these days.