Masonry Magazine September 1973 Page. 8
Las Vegas
# Be A Winner!
(Continued from page 7)
Arrivals now are scheduled for Sunday and Monday, February 24-25, with the MCAA Show officially opening late Monday afternoon. This requirement is due to the heavy weekend traffic flow of visitors to Las Vegas.
Fabulous Las Vegas has long been known as the convention capital of the world. But if 8,000 members of the regional Jehovah's Witnesses convention, 14,000 delegates from the American Mining Congress, and thousands more from the Catholic Women's Organization sound like a medley of miscellany, then this resort oasis can easily be termed the "unconventional convention capital."
These are just a few of the thousands upon thousands of convention delegates who come to Las Vegas yearly for a myriad of confabs from ecclesiastical to giant trade shows. A case in point: residents and visitors alike were astonished recently to awake and see dozens of small aircraft taxiing down a main thoroughfare on the way to an Airline Owners and Pilots Association convention at one end of town.
The growing popularity of Las Vegas as the ideal convention city has been aided by the same factors that draw nearly 16 million visitors to the city each year: gaming, a galaxy of top name entertainers, perpetual sunshine, more than 26,000 first-class hotel and motel rooms, and an unlimited recreational potential.
A contributing factor to Las Vegas' popularity as a convention city is that even with upwards of 25,000 persons attending a convention at the same time, the city can still cater to more than 25,000 visitors.
The tourism facet of the Convention Authority, equally important with the convention promotion effort, has recently initiated the Las Vegas Reservation Service. The WATS line (Wide Area Telephone Service), which serves the entire community with a nation-wide toll-free service, is expected to contribute an estimated eight per cent to the tourism economy.
With all this going for it, it's not hard to see why so many conventions seek out Las Vegas and make their annual gatherings a must at the "Entertainment Capital of the World." When the banners are down and the elections are over, they find they actually did get a lot done and at the same time got a little insight as to why Las Vegas is so famous.
But there's a lot more to Las Vegas than gaming, bright lights and brisk action. The surrounding area has some of the most interesting and spectacular sights in the world, and you can arrange to visit them either before, during (Continued on page 11)
masonry September, 1973