Las Vegas international tourism marketing program endorsed

Friday, Dec. 17, 1999 | 11:50 a.m.

New international flights?

Las Vegas, on the verge of getting nonstop service to London on Virgin Atlantic Airlines in June, may be on a few more route maps in the months ahead.

Jane Wilson, an international sales representative for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said Wednesday that Northwest Airlines, which offers three flights a week between Las Vegas and Tokyo, is considering a nonstop route between Las Vegas and Osaka, Japan.

Spokesmen for Minneapolis-based Northwest could not be reached to confirm the report.

Wilson also said Korean Airlines, which has flown charter flights to Las Vegas, would likely start direct nonstop flights from Seoul, South Korea, as soon as it completes a year-long penalty restriction. A sanction prohibiting route expansion was handed down by the Korean government in the wake of an air accident.

The director of tourism development for the U.S. Department of Commerce says Las Vegas is properly focused in its pursuit of international visitors.

Helen Marano, who addressed three seminars Wednesday at the 16th annual Governor's Conference on Travel and Tourism at Paris Las Vegas, said the city tries to be all things to all people, yet still manages to focus its marketing efforts toward individual countries.

Marano said that's important because in today's changing international tourism market, a blanket approach for all customers won't work.

"You don't tell them how to travel or how to do business," Marano said of many different nationalities the city is attempting to serve. "Las Vegas has learned to appreciate the different cultures that are coming here."

She said the city is successful because it considers the different needs of its visitors and uses the city's abundant entertainment as a unifying component. Nevada's diverse attractions and divergent geography also give the state an edge against other destinations, she said.

Marano believes Las Vegas will continue to succeed at making millions of international visitors happy because so many of them are repeat customers -- three out of four tourists to the United States are making repeat trips, she said.

If appealing to the different needs of foreign visitors is critical, marketers have a tall order ahead of them.

In the three sessions updating different foreign markets, presenters outlined the status of several countries where Las Vegas is trying to attract customers. The issues that face tourism promoters are as diverse as the countries themselves.

On the presentation on Latin America, for example, speakers said properties hoping to attract Mexican tourists should position themselves to attract customers who make last-minute travel decisions. But the same strategy wouldn't work for Brazil, where the economy is troubled and tourists are more careful about how they spend their money.

Stella Clery-Ackland, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's representative to the United Kingdom, urged properties to beef up their presence in Great Britain since consumer purchasing patterns there have begun shifting. She noted the emergence of the Internet as a marketing tool.

"Long-term growth will depend on a company's ability to market directly to the British consumer," Clery-Ackland said.

That strategy is particularly critical next year, she said, because direct service to McCarran International Airport by Virgin Atlantic Airlines is expected to increase British awareness of Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Keith Mangum, Clery-Ackland's counterpart in Germany, said properties anxious to attract German tourists should really study the market to know what Germans like. He noted that Germany is a good market for Las Vegas because residents have so much leisure time -- most Germans get five weeks of vacation a year so their trips abroad are longer than the average international traveler.

By contrast, Japanese tourists are notorious for cramming an abundance of experiences into a small time frame. That's why flights over the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas are so popular with Japanese tourists.

Kyosuke Okada, whose company Okada Associates represents the LVCVA and the Nevada Commission on Tourism in Japan, said the Japanese economy is rebounding and that flights between Tokyo and Las Vegas are more than 75 percent full.

Okada's assessment is more optimistic than Marano's. Marano projects only a 6 percent growth in travel to the United States from Japan over the next four years. And, since the rest of Southeast Asia often follows Japan's lead, she isn't particularly optimistic about the rest of the region, forecasting slow growth in tourism from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

The two bright spots in Asia in Marano's opinion: Vietnam and Korea. The LVCVA and the Nevada Commission on Tourism have agreed to open a tourism office in Seoul, South Korea, early next year. The LVCVA also is considering opening an office in Taiwan in 2001.

Marano said Nevada is well-positioned to take advantage of growth in Latin America.

Although the Brazilian economy, tied to Asian interests, has sputtered, speakers said economic turmoil is almost a way of life and residents still go on vacations to leave their troubles behind.

While there is no direct air service linking South America to Las Vegas on the horizon, United Airlines is planning service between Sao Paulo and Los Angeles and Continental Airlines is looking into flights between Sao Paulo and Houston.

Eric Thomas, senior vice president of City Tours, Rutherford, N.J., said Las Vegas could be a strong market for Argentina because tourists from that country have demonstrated a desire to shop outside their borders. But he added that Brazil's economy is still 18 months away from a recovery -- and even if that occurs, "Brazilians love Disney and will go to Florida."

Thomas said Central America and Mexico could become more viable markets for Las Vegas because there is an abundance of off-season travelers there. He also noted that Las Vegas is close enough to many Mexican communities to make it viable for bus tours.