Study: Las Vegas is second on list of top U.S. tourist cities

Tuesday, June 1, 1999 | 11:20 a.m.

Las Vegas is second in the nation among cities people "would really enjoy visiting," a new study says.

The study, conducted by Longwoods International, a Toronto marketing research firm that focuses on tourism, was commissioned by the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp. The study was delivered to the agency last week.

New Orleans was looking to determine how it stacked up against regional and national competitors in a number of categories. The city found it has lost part of its regional tourism market to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, home of the nation's third largest cluster of casino properties.

It also found that in a national survey conducted in 1998, New Orleans trailed five cities -- San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, Orlando and Seattle -- among the nation's most popular tourism destinations.

"We've watched visits to a competitor go up by 50 percent," said Gary Esolen, executive vice president of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp. "We've watched (Mirage Resorts chief executive) Steve Wynn build a beautiful property on the Gulf Coast (Beau Rivage). We're witnessing a burgeoning destination.

"The interesting thing is that our image is up. We're not losing visitors, we're losing visits."

New Orleans' dilemma is similar to one experienced by Las Vegas as it seek to hold on to gambling customers that now can find casinos all over the nation because of the proliferation of gaming on Indian reservations and other venues.

The LVCVA's 1998-99 marketing plan says a survey of gamblers from 10 key Las Vegas markets indicated that 36 percent of them had reduced their number of trips to Las Vegas or not visited the city at all during the past 12 months because of other gaming venues.

Among high-frequency gamblers, 70 percent cited the reason for reducing their number of trips to Las Vegas was the convenience of going to other more local gaming venues.

Esolen said New Orleans hopes to rebound with the opening of a Harrah's hotel-casino next fall and the Jazzland Theme Park in May 2000.

Persons surveyed by Longwoods were asked to name cities they "would really enjoy visiting." Within New Orleans' regional market, Las Vegas ranked third behind New York and San Francisco, and held its ground compared with a similar study conducted in 1996.

When the same question was asked in a national survey, Las Vegas lost some ground from 1996 to 1998, but was solidly in second position behind San Francisco.

The image survey was conducted in October 1998 with a random sample of 1,000 U.S. households contacted by mail.

Rob Powers, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said Las Vegas consistently ranks among the top three cities in popularity, usually jockeying for position for No. 1 with San Francisco and Orlando.

A summary of the Longwoods report said New Orleans had improved its image for safety from 1996 to 1998. The survey said a higher percentage of respondents gave the city higher marks for having warm, friendly people, being a good place to relax, safeness of tourist areas and safeness to travel anywhere within the city.

The study did not make similar comparisons in other tourism locations.

Terry Jicinsky, manager of the research department of the LVCVA, said Las Vegas hasn't conducted a study specifically addressing crime and safety image issues within the city.

However, a recent visitor profile prepared by GLS Research for the LVCVA offered visitors an opportunity to vent about why they were not completely satisfied with their visits to Las Vegas. Crime and safety issues weren't among the top eight concerns listed by 142 visitors surveyed.

The lowest category had a 1 percent response rate, indicating that less than 1 percent thought crime and safety issues affected their trip satisfaction. Jicinsky said those categories may have been lumped into the "other" category responded to by 39 percent of those asked.

The top eight complaints by tourists who were not completely satisfied with their visits were hotel problems, that they didn't win enough gambling, that they met up with rude, unfriendly service people; that the trip was too expensive, that there was not enough to do for non-gamblers, that it was too hard to get around, that it was too crowded and that it was too hot.

The survey was conducted in 1998. The 142 surveyed were tourists who answered that they were "somewhat satisfied" with their Las Vegas visit and not "very satisfied."

The Longwoods report notes the difficulty of promoting safety.

"It is difficult through advertising to tell potential tourists that New Orleans is a safe place to visit -- speaking directly about safety can have an effect opposite to what is desired, because people can view these messages suspiciously," the report says.

"As the report recommends, in advertising, New Orleans should use the indirect approach to allaying lingering safety concerns, by using 'warm and friendly people' to covey and enhance the primary message that New Orleans is 'an exciting place to visit.' "

Tom Curtis, vice president of Longwoods, said his company has never conducted a tourism satisfaction study for Las Vegas. He said based on responses he received in his national survey for New Orleans, Las Vegas did very well in the "top of mind awareness" categories measuring the city's popularity.