LVCVA to share convention leads on intranet

Tuesday, Sept. 21, 1999 | 11:44 a.m.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is developing an intranet site that will notify hotel properties immediately when the agency gets a lead for a convention or special event.

Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing for the LVCVA, said the agency will test the site with about 10 properties. He expects it to become operational next month.

Ralenkotter discussed the intranet plan at a lunch meeting of the Las Vegas chapter of the American Marketing Association.

Intranets link computers within a closed system the same way the Internet spans the globe. Companies use intranets to share information internally.

The LVCVA's intranet site would allow any property that chooses to link to the system the ability to monitor it for leads on trade shows and special events that are seeking Las Vegas venues.

The service will be free to local hotels and motels and requires a computer that can access the Internet.

Ralenkotter said the LVCVA's information technology department will help properties set up their computer systems to monitor the site. He said his office receives 2,300 leads annually.

"We get phone calls from groups that want to have their meetings in Las Vegas," Ralenkotter said. "When those come in, we pass them along to properties that can meet the need. With the intranet, everybody has access to the lead at the same time."

The daily coordination of the site will be handled by marketing services manager Diana McAdam.

Terry Jicinsky, market research manager for the LVCVA, said the site is being developed internally by the agency so there are only nominal staff costs for it.

In addition to providing leads, the site will offer the LVCVA's convention calendar, access to sales and marketing communications that normally are mailed and monthly statistical reports.

The sales communications give LVCVA travel schedules so that hotel marketers can display materials at some of the trade shows the agency attends.

"There aren't a lot of bells and whistles for the site," Jicinsky said. "It will be mostly text and not a lot of graphics, but hotels will get a lot of important information up to the minute instead of in the mail every month."

The LVCVA came under fire over sharing leads last month in a letter to Ralenkotter from William Weidner, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Inc.

Las Vegas Sands, which operates the Sands Expo and Convention Center and the Venetian hotel-casino, asked Ralenkotter to disclose which shows were threatening to leave Las Vegas because a proposed expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center would not be completed in time for their events.

Weidner said the Sands wanted the leads so that the Expo Center and the Venetian could accommodate them.

The company also has been critical of the LVCVA for operating convention facilities with a tax subsidy. The privately run Sands competes for convention business and says the Las Vegas Convention Center is at an advantage because it receives tax revenues.

The LVCVA responds that its mission is to fill hotel rooms and part of that includes providing convention facilities that can accommodate large shows or several groups at once.

But Weidner applauded the LVCVA's intranet plan.

"Anything that speeds up the process (of delivering leads to properties) is an improvement," Weidner said after learning of the plan.

"They (LVCVA) get hundreds of leads every day from people inquiring about meeting in Las Vegas," Weidner said. "I think they currently send them out the old-fashioned way, someone writing the information down on a piece of paper and sending it out. Speeding up the process should help everyone."

Increasing convention business is one of four goals in the LVCVA's five-year marketing strategy.

In 1999, visitation is off to a flying start and the convention business is part of the increase. Experts attribute the increases to enthusiasm for new properties opening in the past year.

Through June, visits were up 9.6 percent to 16.5 million and convention visitation was up 17.2 percent to 2.1 million. Air traffic has increased 9.3 percent to 16.4 million and Southern California traffic is up 12.3 percent to 2.6 million. Ralenkotter said hotel occupancy rates for the period are up 2.8 points to 89.2 percent for the first six months of the year.

In 1998, the city played host to 30.6 million visitors. The LVCVA says in order to fill the growing number of hotel rooms, the market must be expanded to 38 million visitors within five years.

"People are amazed when they hear we've had an 80 percent increase, 55,000 rooms, in the last 10 years," Ralenkotter said. "Most cities don't even have 55,000 rooms."

In addition to beefing up convention business, the LVCVA's marketing strategy is to reposition marketing of the destination as an entertainment center that has shopping, dining and shows. There's also a greater focus on increasing international visitation because of the large growth potential, and on special events.

The LVCVA is part of the Las Vegas Partners, which is working to increase direct nonstop flights from Asia, Europe and South America. The agency also hired SFX Entertainment to develop a series of three special events per year for three years in an effort to draw visitors on weekends that traditionally have been lightly traveled.