CES still on, Davos postponed: Conventions industry rebound in doubt amid omicron

CES still on, Davos postponed: Conventions industry rebound in doubt amid omicron

Canceled Broadway shows. Shuttered restaurants. Lines of people wrapped around the block at walk-in medical clinics. Businesses sending their employees home. It sounds like a flashback to March 2020. The highly contagious omicron variant is driving a surge of coronavirus infections. In New York, the wave is particularly pronounced, with a seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases nearly doubling over the past week, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. The has prompted people to rethink everyday activities like eating out at restaurants. That's put the on edge. The pandemic brought the industry, which revolves around large gatherings of people, to a screeching halt last year, as social distancing measures were enforced. The conventions industry has been getting back on its feet in recent months. Over the summer, billionaires like and retreated to Idaho for Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley conference. And Bitcoin 2021 brought in June.  estimated that conferences — which drive business for hotels, airlines and local restaurants — contributed more than $101 billion to U.S. gross domestic product in 2019. CEIR's Chief Economist Dr. Allen Shaw projected in September that these gatherings would return to about 75% to 80% of 2019 levels next