$40 billion boost in tourism coffer helps Sin City keep on growing
By Kitty Bean Yancey
USA Today
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On a winning streak after its best year ever, Las Vegas is upping the ante for hotels, shopping and dining.
An unprecedented $40 billion in tourist development is due by 2012, mostly high-end projects from big names.
Last week, a new 3,066-room resort on the Strip officially opened — the first since Wynn Las Vegas in April 2005.
The Palazzo, sister to the 4,027-room The Venetian, is a suites-only property with rates from about $200 and restaurants from the who's who of chefdom, including Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck. There's also a club owned by rapper Jay-Z, and shopping options include the first Barneys New York in Vegas.
A new tourism slogan — "Your Vegas is Showing" — also was unveiled this week in TV and print ads.
It focuses on the city's growing cachet as a shopping, dining and party-like-a-rock-star destination, says Erika Pope of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Vegas visitation January through November 2007 was up 0.7 percent over the same period in 2006, Pope says.
That's on pace to exceed the record 2006 visitation of 38.9 million, she says. New hotels, clubs and upscale shopping aim to woo more visitors to part with more dollars as gaming revenues flatten.
Among projects in the cards:
Is Vegas reaching luxury saturation?
"Our hotel makes more than our casino," says Brad Stone of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns The Palazzo and Venetian. (A Venetian spokesman says occupancy averaged nearly 100 percent in 2007 and rates averaged about $260.)
"At the high end, Las Vegas is considered a (hotel) bargain," Stone says. "There are a whole lot of people who will pay to be in a premium property."
