Vegas market attendance rises 6% over a year ago
Event attracts more foreign, East Coast buyers
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, February 20, 2008
LAS VEGAS — Attendance at the January Las Vegas Market was up 6% from the previous January and up 23% from the July event, according to market organizers.
Attendance from outside the United States and from the U.S. eastern region was up, and more interior designers came to the market, World Market Center officials said.
Organizers did not release a specific attendance figure, saying total registrations “well exceeded the historic 50,000 average.” Registrants came from more than 100 countries and from 83 of the Top 100 U.S. retailers, according to the WMC.
The numbers included “thousands” of new buyers attending the event for the first time, officials said.
“These results serve as compelling testimony to the strength and long-term sustainability of Las Vegas as the center for future industry growth. They are even more remarkable in light of the difficult economic conditions in which both retailers and manufacturers are currently operating,” said Bob Maricich, the WMC’s president and CEO. “World Market Center will continue to invest unprecedented resources into progressive marketing programs that bring buyers to Las Vegas and expand channels of distribution for our participating companies, while delivering the best market value and experience our industry has to offer.”
WMC officials also said that “virtually every space” in the new Building C, which will open for the July market, is spoken for through signed leases and commitments.
Construction on Building D, which will be 17 stories and have 1.1 million square feet, is scheduled to begin later this year. The structure, slated to open in 2010, will expand the market’s lineup of furniture and accessories companies and also will introduce two new segments, gift and home textiles companies, officials said.
Building D, the fourth facility in the planned eight-building campus, will bring the WMC to 6 million square feet.
