In recent years, even destination cities have had to offer significant incentives, discounts and free rent in order to lure convention and trade show business. … Wichita isn’t competing with Atlanta and Las Vegas for convention and trade show business, but the same story of exhibit hall expansion and waning attendance has played out closer to home, too. The Overland Park Convention Center opened in 2002 with consultants estimating the new facility and city-owned hotel would generate 60,000 overnight stays a year. Overnight stays peaked at roughly 58,000 in 2006. By 2015, that figure had dipped to 30,346 stays. In 2018, the last pre-pandemic year with available data, just 23,338 convention-goers stayed overnight in Overland Park. Despite the drop-off in attendance in the past decade, cities keep building new convention centers. The $288 million publicly funded Oklahoma City Convention Center opened in January 2021.
Source: Wichita Eagle
