LV selling itself to lure the next 500 million tourists

Thursday, May 7, 1998 | 10:11 a.m.

Al Brusewitz had a hard time convincing his wife back in California that he had just been recognized as Las Vegas' 500 millionth tourist since 1960.

So he let Elvis do it.

Brusewitz, manager of KPMG Peat Marwick's information risk management division, was met by showgirls and an Elvis Presley impersonator when he stepped off a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles Wednesday morning.

"When I called my wife to tell her, she couldn't believe it, so I put Elvis on the line," Brusewitz said. "Then, she believed me."

For being the 500 millionth visitor, Brusewitz won a two-night stay at Caesars Palace next year, at Sam's Town in 2000, at Treasure Island in 2001, at The Mirage in 2002 and at the MGM Grand in 2003. Southwest Airlines will provide a free ride each year. He also won air tours over the Grand Canyon on Scenic Airlines.

Brusewitz, a Huntington Beach, Calif., resident, was whisked off to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce's annual tourism luncheon in a limousine. He and a colleague came to Las Vegas on a business trip and returned to Los Angeles Wednesday night after meeting clients at the Networld + Interop computer show.

The theme of that show is Internet technology, so it was fitting that two speakers addressing the chamber luncheon talked about using the Internet as a marketing tool.

Terry Jicinsky, marketing research and Internet manager for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said travel is the No. 1 segment for online spending and that travel industry bookings on the Internet will hit $11.7 billion by 2002. Last year, consumers spent $911 million on travel through the World Wide Web.

Jicinsky said 436,000 computer users found the LVCVA's World Wide Web site (www.lasvegas24hours.com) in the first quarter of 1998, most of them drawn to show, event and convention calendars, sites that help tourists book reservations and local weather forecasts. He also said some Web surfers are taking a piece of Las Vegas into their personal computers, downloading photographs from the city to serve as screen savers.

The key to keeping Web sites fresh is to beef up some of the interactive features, Jicinsky said. The LVCVA is developing a currency conversion table to better serve international travelers, interactive maps to help tourists find their way around and a convention housing clearing house. He encouraged resorts with Web sites to offer discounts and contests to enhance interest. About 45 hotel-casinos have sites linked to the LVCVA page.

The session's second speaker, National Finals Rodeo spokesman Bob Tallman, cautioned that the Internet is also a competitor for Las Vegas because as travelers become more educated about their choice of destinations, they could be persuaded to go elsewhere with their travel dollars. Some of Las Vegas' competitors, he said, are copying the city's best qualities.

"When they out-mimic us and get better at it, we have a problem," Tallman said. "Beware that the world is our competition."

Tallman said Las Vegas' challenge will be to get tourists to return "because they love it, not because they didn't have someplace else to go."

Currently a resident of Fort Worth, Texas, Tallman said local resorts should strive to sign visitors up for a return stay before they leave town.

Tallman is a spokesman for one of the champions of the return stay. He said 75 percent of those who attended last year's National Finals Rodeo -- now one of the premiere events of December -- plan to return for this year's event.

"When we moved (the rodeo) here from Oklahoma in 1985, we knew that at 11 at night you might be able to get a ham and cheese sandwich somewhere," Tallman said. "We ended up seeing our attendance grow by factors of 10."