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/28760
COVER STORY We have to make sure tourists have a great time. Some of this is bread-and-butter customer service. Although the sheer volume of business on the Strip makes true customer service next to impossible for the average traveler, we can continue to ramp up technology so that check-in, show tickets, spa and meal reservations are effortless. Similarly, we’re moving toward the European trip model, where the tourist can see options and plan and pay for an itinerary before the trip so that the focus is on enjoying the experience rather than dealing with annoying logistics. work by Stanford’s Shiv, suggests people derive more pleasure from an experience if it costs more, which, in their minds, convinces them it is worth more. And there’s the rub for us: We have to offer value, without seeming cheap. Target, not Walmart. LaTour invokes the unappealing image of the down-market young men dragging their beer coolers through high-end hotels. And, she fears we no longer have the ‘wow factor’ attraction, like what the volcano, the Eiffel Tower and glass pyramid were for us in the not so distant past. “We need an over-the-top, you’ve got-to-come-here- the pool tables and delicious, hidden pizza shop. Then there are the big events. Our model here should be the rodeo, when the whole city becomes a country and western theme park, and we draw business in the otherwise slow month of December. We should do the same, integrating the events through the entire city, with NASCAR, the Super Bowl and March Madness. How about a parade of NASCAR drivers down the Strip? Or the chance to experience what a real NFL concussion feels like? You get the idea. One could argue how, exactly, is Wynn different from the Venetian? The R&R research—backed by recent press reports—also shows customers don’t want infuriating hidden charges, which might remind consumers of insidious fees used by banks to pad their profits. Indeed: Perhaps we shouldn’t model our customer service after institutions the public views with considerable contempt. (Related: Crack down on long-hauling among cabdrivers). Another truth-in-marketing issue: If a restaurant is a globe-trotting celebrity chef establishment, it should approximate the quality of his restaurant in his home city—no phoning it in. Our famous Frenchmen seem to live up to this ideal, others, not as much. But all that stuff is relatively easy. It’s simply a matter of recognizing consumers are more discriminating and won’t get hassled or hustled anymore, and that if we take a $100 from someone, we have to return $100 worth of experience, minus our reasonable cut. What’s harder is giving the consumer something extra, a special experience, the one he won’t have in San Francisco or Miami or New York or wherever else adults go for fun. Tiffany Barnett White, an expert in marketing and consumer psychology at the University of Illinois, puts it this way: “Their expectations have to be exceeded. You want them to be delighted.” Despite all there is to do in Las Vegas, there needs to be more, and the offerings need to continue to evolve. “There needs to be innovation,” Vassiliadis says. “A constant focus on offering new, one-time, exclusive experiences that can only be had here and really adds to my notion of getting my money’s worth.” Hornbuckle says that during the past decade, with the evolution of resorts that added great restaurants and electric nightclub scenes and then pool debauchery, Las Vegas became the party capital of the world. But he acknowledged that there has to be something new. “What’s the next thing? We don’t know the answer yet,” Hornbuckle says. LaTour of UNLV sounds downcast about our prospects. She fears that the ongoing price war has had a damaging effect on consumers’ perceptions of their Vegas experience; evidence, including recent | 4 APRIL 2011 | to-see-this attraction,” she says. She seems to be only half-joking when she says CityCenter should have been built with an indoor ski hill ala Dubai. Caesar s Entertainment will spend several hundred million dollars on what it internally calls “Project Linq,” a walkable outdoor area of bars, shops and restaurants between Flamingo and O’Shea s. That would give the Strip a dense party zone, akin to what’s found in New Orleans and countless college towns but is mostly lacking on the Strip because our first priority is ushering tourists into the casinos. The plaza will end at a giant F erris wheel. And another developer plans yet another giant F erris wheel a bit farther south. Humans are simple, and who knows? Perhaps giant, slowly moving wheels will captivate them. Aside from the Caesar s project, there’s a glut of rooms and not much capital for more building, so we shouldn’t expect expensive indoor ski hills or rivers of tiger blood that might bring the gawking hordes of Des Moines or Little Rock. So where does that leave us? How do we create special experiences people won’t forget so that they’ll come again and be our advocates with family, friends and co-workers? Clearly it wouldn’t be accurate to call Las Vegas boring. But we seem to have been sapped of some of our creativity by corporate consolidation on the Strip, combined with the money train that ran through here for so long and suggested a proven formula. It’s akin to what comic books did to Hollywood— delivered a proven winner and a flashiness that, over time, became oddly dull and ignored large demographic groups that love movies but don’t like comic book movies. A not uncommon sentiment among tourists: These places, with their gaming floors and restaurants and bars and clubs and pools, they’re all sort of the same. One could argue how, exactly, is Wynn different from the Venetian? This might explain the early extraordinary popularity of Cosmopolitan, with its funkier crowd, unconventional layout and odd attractions such as Other events need to be supported and amplified, including the PGA tournament, the rugby tournament, Vegas UnCorked, the marathon and the upcoming Celtic Festival. This year, for the first time, we’ll host the Electric Daisy Carnival, a huge electronic music festival that will draw tens of thousdands. The synergy with Las Vegas is, in a word, perfect. But, why don’t we have a massive foodie festival? Why shouldn’t we have the X Games or something like it every year? Note the common thread of these events: They’re for subcultures. America is a country of subcultures: People with an obsessive devotion to this or that obscure hobby or interest or activity or sport. And most of these subcultures have celebratory events and competitions and the like, and they should all happen here. Seriously. Aren’t we also missing opportunities on some big holidays that we should own? Halloween should be a weekend long party here, and Las Vegas should be the West Coast’s go-to place for Mardi Gras, Spring Break, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day. Once it’s legal to bet on the Oscars, the Strip should throw its own massive Academy Awards party, replete with red carpets and tuxedos, faux paparazzi, C-list celebrities. All of it. Finally, Las Vegas has become, somewhat unwittingly, the capital of bachelor and bachelorette parties. How about a summer festival to bring these people all here on one long weekend. Call it, “Last Chance Weekend.” It would be at once terrific and terrible. It would be classic Vegas. Maybe these ideas are duds. So be it. More than any individual important idea is constantly brainstorm, and then collaborate on making the best ideas happen. The bottom line is that if consumers are more value conscious, and we’ve just built luxury hotels that are affordable, aren’t we well positioned as the recession comes to a merciful close? Seems so. But only if we work together, embrace change and learn to evolve. It’s time to reinvent your image, Las Vegas. Again. 25 that we