Great Expectations: Can Tours of Las Vegas Deliver the Glitz?

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 7/10/2006

Las Vegas—With more hotel rooms and meeting space than any other U.S. city, Las Vegas is popular with planners. But putting on a fam' trip to Sin City presents a few unique challenges.

For starters, there's the glitz and glamour factor.

"Overall, I think the attendee, regardless of his agenda, expects to be blown away, because the destination itself is a little over the top," said Tim McKenna, senior manager for Carlson Marketing, a third-party planning agency.

Michael Goldsmith, director of convention sales for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, agreed that fam' trippers to the city expect to be entertained, but "no matter what your expectation level is for Las Vegas, it turns out to be better than what you thought."

In other cities, convention and visitors bureaus typically organize fam' trips working with hotels and special event venues. Including cultural elements often requires extra work.

But in Las Vegas, museums, theaters, spas, shopping centers, nightclubs and restaurants are housed in the hotels. Including them in a fam' trip is a given. After the usual site visits and menu tastings, attendees can gamble or club-hop without leaving their host hotel.

"The night never ends here. It just depends on what kind of energy each person has," said Alan Waxler, president and CEO of the Alan Waxler Group, which provides luxury transportation and event décor for meetings and conventions. Waxler, who estimated his company provides transportation for a half-dozen fam' trips per year, said he's run into a few meeting planners in nightclubs during the wee hours.

Nobody said they thought fam' trips to Vegas were wilder than in other cities, though. When asked about a recent incident — where an attendee drank so much one night that he failed a breathalyzer test required to participate in a driving activity the following morning — Goldsmith pointed out that other cities have alcohol too.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," was all McKenna would say.

Getting attendees to show up (sober) for an 8 a.m. activity isn't the only challenge Las Vegas fam' trip organizers face.

Waxler said he thinks meetings planners' expectations of Las Vegas are higher than those of other cities because of the abundant choices they have. Every major hotel company has multiple properties, and each one of those properties has at least one blockbuster show and numerous epicurean opportunities.

"No other destination on the planet has more choices," Waxler said.

So, in a city with 133,000 hotel rooms and hundreds of special event sites, how do you choose what to include on a fam' trip?

"We ask them what they want to see," said Goldsmith.

In fact, planners said there's so much to see in Las Vegas that they could take multiple fam' trips to the city each year and not keep up with the ever-changing inventory. There are nearly a dozen properties with meeting space in the city undergoing construction, renovation or change in management at present.

McKenna said Las Vegas typically ranks among Carlson's top five destinations each year, "more times than not in the top three." Nonetheless, he has to do site visits to stay abreast of the evolution.

"We view fam' trips as an educational opportunity, to see what's there, what's new, what's open, to provide input on the final product," he said. "We are in essence hoping to represent that city to our clients, who look at us as the expert."

At the same time, Las Vegas faces the ironic problem of dealing with its own success. Its popularity in the media has driven strong tourism (38.6 million people last year). In the past, the city had a reputation for not accommodating meeting planners, because most hotels didn't need their business.

Barbara Underwood, manager of event marketing for Sabre Holdings, said that has been true for her.

"If you're bringing in a group of 5,000, you get their attention, but anything less than that, they don't care about you," Underwood said. "Every time I have someone who wants to go to Las Vegas, I try to talk them out of it."

A recent fam' hosted by Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah's Entertainment began to change her mind, though. Underwood said Harrah's listened to her concerns.

Another participant in the trip, Kathey Scott, meeting planner for Scientech, has been doing meetings at the Flamingo for two years and doesn't find Las Vegas difficult to schedule.

McKenna agreed, adding that the perception the city doesn't care about the little guy is outdated.

Still, he said, "the only problem a meeting planner might have in terms of getting rooms and function space and getting them contracted in time would be the city's popularity. You've got to be looking far enough out."

Goldsmith said Las Vegas cares more than ever about the small meeting planner. "Fifty percent of our meetings and conventions attract 500 attendees or less," he pointed out.

He did agree, though, that demand has been high. With the hotel mergers of the last couple years, corporations — particularly MGM Mirage, Harrah's and Wynn — have been busy conducting their own fam' trips. The LVCVA hasn't done one in a couple years.

But Goldsmith said the authority is getting back into the game this fall, planning trips to coincide with city-sponsored events like the Las Vegas Marathon or the Natl. Finals Rodeo.

Entertainment aside, he said, the point is for planners to see that Las Vegas properties have the facilities and commitment to make their meetings successful.

"Everything's not fun and games. You take them to see Cirque (du Soleil); that's great. Take them to dinner; that's great. But it's most important that they see the hotels are serious about their business."