VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
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IN BUSINESS TOURISM PRINCE HARRY'S NAKED SHENANIGANS GOOD FOR TOURISM By Richard N. Velotta senior staff writer T hank you, Prince Harry. Your royal romp at the Wynn Encore Tower Suites last month gave Las Vegas an end-of-the-summer tourism bump. And even though you were the butt of late-night talk-show hosts' jokes and you're bound to get a royal scolding from the Queen Mum, your pool-party shenanigans fell squarely into the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Author- ity's marketing strategy to attract at- tention to the place that regularly cel- ebrates your kind of fun. Photos of the prince's nude billiard game resulted in a full-page ad touting Las Vegas in USA Today, a doubling of searches for local resorts on hotels.com and the invention of a $25 hamburger at a Strip eatery. It also created a buzz about Las Vegas that money can't buy. The LVCVA ad in USA Today chided the people who ratted out Prince Harry to celebrity gossip site TMZ. "For shame!" it reads. "To those who traded in their pledge to their Las Vegas brethren, we deplore you. We are calling on you, the defenders of what happens in Vegas staying in its rightful place — in Vegas. We are asking for a shun on those exploiters of Prince Harry. We shall boycott partying of any kind with them. No bottle service. No bikini-clad girls. No Bucatini from Batali. In other words, we will not play with them any- more. Who's with us?" A spokesman for the LVCVA said the ad cost "in the low six figures." Based on hotels.com, figures tabulated by thousands of others are thinking about playing hard in South- ern Nevada. In the 24 hours after the crown jew- els went on public display, the website reported that Las Vegas searches more than doubled from the same date a year ago. Company officials dubbed it "the Prince Harry effect." "Vegas has long since been the party capital of the world, and it seems that recent events have led to a resurgence in people's desire to go there and let off steam, just as Prince Harry has," said Kate Hopcraft of hotels.com. A Las Vegas gourmet hamburger res- taurant also was quick to capitalize on the prince's folly. I Love Burgers, which has locations at Town Square and The Shoppes at the Palazzo, on Aug. 24 debuted "The Exposed Prince," a $25 burger that features a ground Kobe patty, Boxing Cheddar, garlic and onion chutney, a fried egg and HP sauce served open- faced on a pretzel bun. | 3 SEPTEMBER 2012 | 079914.01_ref 079811.01_SNWA_Compliance_Print_Vegas Inc_9/3_Island 7.08" x 9.25"_InDesign CS5_ Fonts: Univers LT 93 Extra Black Extended, Helvetica Neue_4C_AD: DV_GA: Dorcus 8.20.12; tom 8.22.12 loaded 13 CLOCKS TO 3 DAYS PER WEEK. changeyourclock.com with it." John Cerqueira, general manager of I Love Burgers at the Palazzo, said the restaurant sold about a dozen of the burgers by mid-day Aug. 24 as an off- the-menu special. "It's a conversation piece," he said. "I think everybody is just having some fun Deal Los Angeles Times Daily Travel and blogger Mary Forgione wrote, "Bare-naked photos of Prince Harry in Las Vegas that surfaced this week gave Sin City an opportunity to do what it does best: Seize the marketing day!" And London Mayor Boris Johnson told the BBC he had a "deafening indif- ference" to the publication of the naked photos. "The real scandal would be if you went all the way to Las Vegas and you didn't misbehave in some trivial way," he said. IN BUSINESS, TIMING IS EVERYTHING. IT'S TIME TO RESET WATERING