Black Meetings and Tourism

March / April 2020

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7 B M & T ••• March/April 2020 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com team at Visit Seattle – we will continue to create travel inspiration for visitors." 2019 was a record year in future business booked for Seattle. Business booked through 2028 is expected to have an economic impact of $798 mil- lion with nearly 800,000 total room nights booked. About Visit Seattle: Visit Seattle has served as the official destination marketing organization (DMO) for Seattle and King County for more than 50 years. A 501(c)(6) organization, Visit Seattle enhances the economic prosperity of the region through global destination branding along with competitive programs and campaigns in leisure travel marketing, convention sales and overseas tourism development. More than 41 million annual visitors spend $8.1 billion in the city and county each year. The economic power of travel and tourism generates more than 80,000 Seattle area jobs and contributes $837 million in annual state and local tax revenue. Visit visitseattle.org. LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER CELEBRATES MAJOR MILESTONE IN ELON MUSK'S INNOVATIVE UNDERGROUND TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM; EXCAVATION OF FIRST TUNNEL COMPLETE The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) today announced that excavation is complete in the first of two vehicular tunnels that will comprise TBC – The Boring Company d/b/a Vegas Loop underground transportation system located beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center campus. After tunneling forty feet underground for nearly a mile over the past three months, the boring machine hours ago broke through the concrete wall located near the 1.4 million-sq. ft. West Hall convention center expansion, currently under construction, sig- naling the official com- pletion of excavation for the first of two one-way tunnels. The Convention Center Loop was designed to serve as an innovative, fun and quick transportation solution to move thousands of convention attendees throughout the more than 200-acre campus with the potential for expansion in the near future to ease congestion throughout the Las Vegas resort corridor. Next, the machine will be disassembled, transported via trucks and lowered back into the launch pit near the Convention Center's South Hall where it will begin boring a parallel path adjacent to the first tunnel. The first commercial endeavor for the new tunneling company is designed to transport up to 4,400 convention attendees per hour and is scheduled to debut to the public in January 2021. "This marks an important milestone in the future of transportation," said Steve Hill, LVCVA CEO and president. "Las Vegas is proud to lead the way as the first and only destination to offer an underground transportation solution for moving visitors throughout our convention center." The $52.5 million underground transportation system will include three passenger stations connecting the existing 3.2 million-sq. ft. of con- vention space with the convention center's new West Hall, part of a $1.52 billion expansion and renovation. The system will allow convention attendees to be whisked across the sprawling campus in just over one minute, free of charge, in all-electric Tesla vehicles. For a time-lapse video of the tunnel breakthrough and photos chronicling the project's development, click here. About the LVCVA The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) is charged with marketing Southern Nevada as a tourism and convention destina- tion worldwide, and also with operating the Las Vegas Convention Center. With nearly 150,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas alone and more than 11 million square feet of meeting and exhibit space citywide, the LVCVA's mission centers on attracting ever increasing numbers of leisure and business visitors to the area. For more information, go to www.lvcva.com. or www.visitlasvegas.com.

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