What a difference a few years can make to a tourism-dependent gaming state like Nevada.
Las Vegas is now set to top its visitor-volume record achieved in 2007, while its hotels still have some way to go for their occupancy rates to recover from a spike in room inventory that collided with the Great Recession.
Henderson’s reputation as an international sports event host is growing. Laughlin’s convention attendance is up this year. And Reno has seen an uptick in convention bookings and boasts new downtown attractions.
Las Vegas
The era when one or more megaresorts was under construction has long gone. But cutting-edge innovations aimed at enticing more visitors to Sin City have not waned.
Casino resort revitalization efforts are continuing. The focus now is on bringing back the glitz and glamour of downtown, where new attractions debuted this year. Along the Strip, work is under way on two London Eye-type Ferris wheel standouts that will provide high-rolling opportunities for groups. And McCarran International Airport has opened a new $2.4 billion terminal.
“Many resorts have completed or are in the process of multimillion-dollar renovations, which are further improving the value and experience our visitors expect,” says Amy Riley, senior director of convention sales at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). “Even the skyline is being reinvented with two giant observation wheels going up right now.”
Last year, the World’s Gaming Capital attracted 38.9 million visitors—the second-highest visitor total ever, and a 4.3 percent increase over 2010, which followed a 2.7 percent increase in 2010. It hosted 39.2 million visitors in its peak year, 2007, after which numbers plummeted to 36.4 million 2009.
For the year’s first six months, total visitors rose 2.4 percent and, notably, the number of meetings and conventions increased 20.3 percent, which Riley attributes to more conferences and smaller corporate meetings.
“We have experienced more than two years of visitation growth, and expect to welcome a record 40 million visitors this year. While not to the level we saw before 2008, corporate meetings are coming back,” she says, adding that last year almost 5 million business visitors attended more than 19,000 events, with many trade shows breaking attendance records.
Vegas has 150,000 hotel rooms more than any other U.S. city, a number that doubled in two decades. Its average occupancy dropped 10 points from a peak of 90.4 percent in 2007 to 80.4 percent in 2010, then increased last year to 83.8 percent, according to LVCVA figures.
In June, McCarran International Airport opened its 9 million-square-foot Terminal 3 expansion, giving it 14 new gates, seven of which can be used for international arrivals. All foreign-based airlines and some domestic now operate from Terminal 3.PageBreak
Mid-Strip, Caesars Entertainment is building for a 2013 opening of The Linq, a $550 million project that includes a giant observation wheel—The Las Vegas High Roller—said to be tallest in the world, at 550 feet, and 200,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space. Across the Strip from Mandalay Bay in the south, the 500-foot SkyVue wheel under construction has the two wheel-holding towers already up. Slated for a 4th quarter 2013 completion, the project will include 21,000 square feet of convention space and 140,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment.
The High Roller’s 28 cabins will each accommodate up to 40 passengers; SkyVue’s 40 gondolas will each hold up to 25.
March saw the unveiling of the $470 million Smith Center for the Performing Arts downtown with a 2,050-seat main performance hall and two smaller theaters. Early next year downtown’s Lied Discovery Children’s Museum will move to an adjacent building.
“With the opening of the state-of-the-art Smith Center, downtown is emerging as a great place for meeting planners to hold unique events,” Riley says.
In February, the $42 million Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement opened in the former federal courthouse building, an easy walk from the Fremont Street Experience, a five-block pedestrian mall area with the world’s largest video screen and a sound and light show, and nine casino hotels.
Here, the 106-room Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, opened in 1906 and downtown’s oldest hotel, was completing a casino expansion and a new 16-suite, five-story tower. Also, the 638-room Fitzgerald Casino & Hotel is undergoing an extensive renovation, including room renovations and will be rebranded the D Casino Hotel upon completion this fall.
The 1,037-room Plaza Hotel & Casino reopened in the Fremont area in September last year after a yearlong $35 million renovation. The area’s first new guest-room tower in two decades opened in November 2010 when the 2,414-room Golden Nugget unveiled its 500-room Rush Tower.
Vegas has maintained its ranking as the country’s top trade-show destination for the 18th consecutive year. Last year it hosted 55 of the top 250 largest shows, more than the next two competitors combined, Trade Show News Network found.
Las Vegas Convention Center, Sands Expo Center and Mandalay Bay Convention Center are among the country’s 10 largest convention centers.
The last casino-resorts to debut were the 2,995-room Cosmopolitan in late 2010, and MGM Resorts International’s 6,000-room CityCenter in late 2009.
Last January, however, Caesars Palace opened its long-delayed sixth tower, the 668-room Octavius Tower, marking the completion of a $860 million, multiyear Palace expansion. This fall, Nobu Hospitality’s first hotel, the 181-room Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace, opens in the Centurion Tower. PageBreak
Stockbridge Capital Group LLC announced early this year it had financing to redevelop the 1,720-room Sahara Hotel & Casino at the Strip’s northern end, which closed in May 2011.
MGM Grand was finishing a $160 million renovation of its main tower’s 3,570 rooms and 642 suites. In January, Bellagio completed a six-month, $70 million room remodel of its 2,568 main-tower rooms, and in August began the $40 million remodeling the 1,028 Spa Tower rooms, slated for a December completion.
Tropicana Las Vegas late last year completed a $180 million South Beach-inspired transformation that included its rooms and 60,000 square feet meeting space, and a new beach club and restaurants. And in July, the Palms Casino Resort began the renovation of its 428 Palms Tower rooms.
Henderson
Southeast of the Strip, Henderson has more than 4,000 rooms and more than 250,000 square feet meeting space. In addition to resorts, Nevada’s second-largest city offers the 13,000-square-foot downtown Henderson Convention Center.
According to Ed Kirby, Henderson’s Cultural Arts & Tourism Department’s national sales manager, the city’s advantage is its location close to McCarran and minutes from the Strip, and such nearby marvels Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, the Colorado River and Red Rock Canyon.
“We’re focusing some of our efforts on the outdoor adventure market,” he says.
The city hosts 600-plus events a year.
“Our reputation as Southern Nevada’s pioneer in special events is quickly spreading around the globe, and more sports organizers are selecting Henderson,” he says.
Among the major sports events held have been the 2012 U.S. Open Synchronized Swimming Championships in July, and the 2011 ITU Long Course Triathlon World Championship. Last year was the first year in a five-year contract for the Ironman World Championship 70.3. And next year it hosts the World Tenpin Bowling Association World Championships.
Henderson includes the resort community of Lake Las Vegas, 17 miles from the Strip, which Kirby says “has made significant strides toward its revitalization as a premier resort destination.”
In March, the 493-room Loews Lake Las Vegas, with 45,000 square feet of meeting space, became the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa after undergoing a $4 million renovation. The former Ritz-Carlton, which had been closed, in February last year reopened as the Ravella at Lake Las Vegas under Dolce Hotels management.
Laughlin/Mesquite/Primm
Clark County encompasses such gaming destinations as Laughlin, Mesquite and Primm, and is promoted by LVCVA.
Located on the Colorado River 90 miles south of Vegas, Laughlin has nine casino resorts with 10,000-plus rooms and more than 120,000 square feet of meeting space. PageBreak
Properties include Edgewater and Colorado Belle Casino Resorts, two casinos under the same ownership that in May began the remodeling of a total of 1,980 rooms. Also, Don Laughlin’s 1,000-room Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino, which unveiled an amphitheater with a capacity for 2,800 people in 2010, recently completed a major renovation of its Six-Plex Riverside Theaters.
Close to the Arizona and Utah borders, Mesquite has 1,762 hotel rooms, nine championship golf courses and three casino resorts—Casablanca, Virgin River and Eureka—that account for the bulk of its 60,000 square feet of meeting space. And Primm, 30 minutes south of Vegas on the California border, has three casino resorts with a total of 2,600 rooms: Buffalo Bill’s, Whiskey Pete’s and Primm Valley, an outlet mall, amusement park and two golf courses.
“Many meeting planners and visitors are taking advantage of the exceptional experience our neighboring towns have to offer,” says Meg McDaniel, LVCVA’s senior manager, regional sales. “The destinations continue to be challenged with the growth of regional gaming competition, but Laughlin continues to grow the group and small meetings market segments.”
Laughlin’s convention attendance, she notes, was up nearly 11 percent for the first half of this year. The city’s ADR was $42.16 and its occupancy was 60.9 percent. Mesquite’s corresponding figures were $51.59 and 81.2 percent, according to the LVCVA. In comparison, Vegas had a citywide occupancy for the six months of 84.9 percent at a $110.04 ADR.
Reno/Tahoe
Reno has the Reno-Sparks Convention Center with more than 500,000 square feet of space in an area with 2,600 hotel rooms nearby. A few miles away, its downtown has 7,000 rooms and six casinos, most with hotels and meeting space, plus the 118,000-square-foot Reno Events Center.
“Our convention sales efforts have really started to build momentum. We’ve also had some recent growth,” says John Leinen, vice president of convention and tourism sales at the Reno Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority (RSCVA), which sells Reno, Sparks and North Lake Tahoe. “Our fiscal year 2011-2012 was up almost 50 percent compared to the previous year’s convention sales bookings.”
In February, RSCVA joined ASAE’s group of Alliance Partners in the strategic partner category, a move that Leinen says has been very beneficial.
And two major meetings companies have met in Reno this year: the HelmsBriscoe annual business convention with 1,700 attending in January, and more than 1,000 in attendance at an Experient convention in March.
“Both of these opportunities have resulted in quality leads, some of which we’re certain we can secure,” he says.
“Downtown Reno is also experiencing growth and redevelopment,” he adds, thanks to the Reno Aces, an AAA team whose Aces Stadium opened in 2009. “Adjacent to Aces Stadium, the Freight House District has become a popular tourist destination for dining and entertainment.” PageBreak
April saw the grand opening of the International Bowling Museum & Hall of Fame at Reno’s National Bowling Stadium just before the start of the 2012 U.S. Bowling Congress Women’s Championships.
Off-site venue space increased with the opening of two new downtown attractions in 2011.
The 64,000-square-foot Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum opened in Reno’s former City Hall in September.
And unveiled last October overlooking the historic arch sign, the “Biggest Little City in the World,” is the new CommRow, which features a climbing wall—the world’s tallest, at 164 feet—on the 16-story exterior facade, and has rock climbing, restaurants, event space and two performance venues. A conversion of the former 351-room Fitzgeralds Hotel and Casino, its future plans include hotel rooms.
Leinen says that more than $1 billion has been invested in the destination over the past few years. Hotel-casinos that have undergone extensive renovations and expansions include Peppermill Hotel Casino, Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, Silver Legacy Resort and Casino, and Siena Hotel Spa Casino.
The 214-room Siena Hotel, Spa and Casino, which has 11,000 square feet of meeting space, reopened in April last year following renovations and the sale of the closed property at auction.
In a RSCVA visitor profile study last year, 55 percent indicated that they did some gambling during their visit. That compares with LVCVA’s 2011 research, which showed that 77 percent of Vegas visitors said they gambled, down each year from 85 percent in 2008.
A 45-minute drive from Reno Tahoe International Airport, Lake Tahoe’s North Shore has more than 7,000 guest rooms, 200,000 square feet of meeting space at more than 30 sites, and like the South Shore, a number of major ski resorts.
Among its five casinos is the 422-room Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa & Casino, which in May completed a $20 million renovation that included 398 rooms, the Sierra Cafe and the seven-room Spa Terrace Conference Center.
In July, the North Lake Tahoe CVB announced it had hired a sales and marketing firm, the Hyland Group, to represent the region to the meetings industry.
“Having the Hyland Group onboard is a first for our area,” explains Jason Neary, the CVB’s director of conference sales. “Moving forward, this partnership will elevate the exposure of Lake Tahoe to the meetings and event industry and will generate significant revenue for our region.”
Tahoe’s South Shore has more than 4,000 hotel rooms. Stateline, Nev., has four meetings casino resorts—MontBleu, Harveys, Harrah’s and Horizon Casino Resort—which together have almost 70,000 square feet of meeting space.
“Business has been very good,” says Mike Frye, sales and events manager for the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, which promotes the South Shore. “We are a unique destination with easy access—one hour to Reno Tahoe International Airport—with value-terrific rates, few properties with resort fees or [which] charge for parking, and with headliner entertainment, gaming and the most restaurants, bars, shopping and spas in the Sierra.”
Tony Bartlett has covered the hospitality industry for more than 20 years and is a frequent contributor to Meetings Focus publications.
