VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/132233
talking points Will summer pitch be a home run? LVCVA reboots 'What happens here' ads in foreign markets to attract new tourists by Richard N. Velotta T oday is the unofficial start of the summer vacation season and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is ready to reel in tourists with strategies that have twists on campaigns that have worked well in the past. It is rolling out a Spanish-language version of a "What happens here, stays here" ad. It also is running a television ad in London steeped in British humor that most Americans won't get. Domestically, the LVCVA is cranking up the marketing of the lasvegas.com website with further adventures of its pitch man, Las Vegasdotcom, portrayed by actor Craig Geraghty. No one is pushing the panic button just yet but in the first quarter of 2013, visitation fell slightly below 2012 levels, meaning that Las Vegas will need a good summer to hit the elusive goal of attracting 40 million tourists. For the first three months of the year, the city attracted 9.7 million visitors, just the 9.76 million from the first quarter of 2012. That's so close that the extra day for Leap Year in 2012 is the difference between being ahead of last year's pace and being behind. Two other key tourism indicators are up in the first quarter, with citywide occupancy up 0.6 percentage points while the average daily room rate was up 1.5 percent to $111.52. With the unanimous approval of the LVCVA's $270.3 million budget this month, $92.2 million will be spent on advertising. At a recent board meeting, the public got its first glance at new international and domestic spots. The new Spanish language "What happens here" ad, which will air in Mexico and Brazil, shows a group of young men partying with a silver trophy. The group hoists the hardware at Caesars Palace, in a car on the Strip, at the Tao nightclub and at the Canal Shoppes at the Venetian. In the last scene, we discover that it wasn't a trophy at all as one of the partiers places some flowers back into a silver vase at a hotel. The ad is tagged with "Lo que pasa aqui, se queda aqui." Cathy Tull, the LVCVA's senior vice president of marketing, warned board members that they might not find the British TV ad very funny. Using the tag, "Leave your stiff upper lip at home," the camera scans rooms in a house where randomly placed upper lips are on tables, counters and nightstands as rain pours in the background. "What can I tell you, it's British humor," Tull said. "Our London people say the public loves it." Domestically, the LVCVA is making ad buys in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver and Dallas. Will the multimillion-dollar marketing blitz deliver the tourism numbers the city needs to fill its 150,000 hotel rooms? We should know in a few months. rick.velotta@lasvegassun.com / 259-4061 / @VegasInc_TheRV 'What can I tell you, it's British humor. Our London people say the public loves it.' — Cathy Tull, senior vice president of marketing for the LVCVA Serious talk about gaming policy Why Nevada should look at Dotty's one way, sports book kiosks another by J. Patrick Coolican T he Nevada Resort Association — especially Station Casinos — is livid about Dotty's, the quiet little slot arcades that seem to anchor so many forlorn strip malls. Big Gaming argues, persuasively I think, that both legislators and regulators never intended to allow a slot arcade on every corner of our community, which is why the legal language always required that gaming be "incidental" to the main business in these establishments, be it a bar or convenience store. (To be sure, Dotty's was always properly licensed by regulators — you can't really blame them for the policy drift here. And, they certainly deserve credit for their ingenious marketing.) Sean Higgins, a bar owner and lobbyist for most of the 1,900 restricted licensees, says the resort association "plays Big Brother to other industries, dictating to us what is appropriate operation for us. Enough is enough." 6 20130527_VI06_F.indd 6 Higgins says the whole point of the legislation is to stifle competition. I'm sympathetic, and I have no illusions about Big Gaming's motives here, which involve money, currency, and also money. To his point, however: Are we stifling competition? Yes, we are, and that's OK. The statute governing gaming begins with a preamble that lays out a far-reaching public policy explicitly stating that gaming's pre-eminent place in Nevada's social and economic life means we will take extraordinary steps to regulate it, for the health and welfare of the industry and the broader community. Dotty's is little more than a dopamine delivery device, and it contributes very little to the broader community — just a handful of jobs, no amenities and a paltry sum of taxes. Indeed, in part because restricted licensees pay a small flat fee per slot machine instead of the gross gaming tax like the big resorts pay, the small guys paid just $13 million in taxes compared with $653 million by the resorts last year. And that's just gaming taxes. Throw in room taxes, sales taxes, the live entertainment tax and all the rest, and the resorts paid $1.3 billion in total taxes, or 42 percent of general fund. This doesn't mean, however, that regulators or the Legislature should always favor the resorts over smaller competitors, especially when it comes to innovative new technology. Gaming lobbyists also want to snuff out new sports betting kiosks, which resemble ATMs for sports betting, that you find in many taverns around the valley. This issue is entirely different from Dotty's, which is like an invasive species around the valley. The sports book kiosks, by contrast, are going into existing businesses that already have slot machines. It's a nice convenience for people at a bar who are enjoying their team and their chicken wings and don't want to have to trudge over to Sunset Station or another sports book to place a bet. And really that's the point: Station Casinos wants to force locals to come to their business to make sports bets. It's bullying, and I see no public policy rationale for it. I'm open to higher taxes on the kiosks in restricted locations. Call it a "convenience fee." Or, hey, I have an alternate idea: If Station Casinos will allow the Culinary Union to organize at its properties with the same card check process the union has used on the Strip then, fine, I'll advocate we shut down the kiosks. No? OK, kiosks it is, then. Dotty's is little more than a dopamine delivery device, and it contributes very little to the broader community — just a handful of jobs, no amenities and a paltry sum of taxes. | 2 7 M AY 2 0 1 3 | 5/23/13 2:25:21 PM