Atlanta company says business travel increasing

MGM Mirage and Las Vegas Sands Corp. executives, during their companies’ recent quarterly earnings reports, said advance convention and meetings bookings for 2010 are on the rise.

Tammy Farley of The Rainmaker Group is witness to the trend.

Farley, an executive vice president and principal of the Atlanta-based company that sells revenue management software to the hotel industry, said her clients are providing incremental data showing that business travel is starting to rebound after a dismal 2009. In Las Vegas, convention and meeting attendance is down almost 25 percent through September.

Some of Farley’s customers, including the major hotel-casino companies operating in Las Vegas and regional gaming markets, said the trend is reversing. There has been some uptick in the demand for hotel rooms tied to conventions.

“We saw things slow down tremendously in the last year, but people are starting to feel a little more energized and it seems that the travel restrictions are starting to relax somewhat,” Farley said. “Hopefully, the stigma about business travel is going away.”

During the upcoming Global Gaming Expo, The Rainmaker Group is hosting a series of events and meetings for its clients, including a group meeting a the Four Seasons, a client cocktail party at the Pure Nightclub and a golf outing at the Red Rock Country Club. The golf tournament is being sponsored for the first time ever, Farley said.

In September, the United States Travel Association released a study showing a link between business travel and business growth. For every dollar invested in business travel, businesses experienced an average of $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits, according to the study.

The study was released to try and revive business travel, hurt in part by the down economy and from backlash over remarks made by President Barack Obama that companies receiving bailout money shouldn’t travel to Las Vegas or the Super Bowl at taxpayers’ expense.

Farley said Las Vegas makes perfect sense for business and meeting travel. The hotel-casinos are large enough and have the various amenities needed to host all events associated with the gatherings.

The Rainmaker Group’s plans surrounding G2E are the first major business travel events the company has participated in since August 2008.

“When you think about it Las Vegas really resolves any logistical nightmare for meeting planners,” Farley said.