Lack of fireworks hurt TV coverage

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

Compared to the envious television coverage Paris, London and Moscow received for their flashy New Year's celebrations, Las Vegas garnered less-than-flattering attention from national networks.

But some of Nevada's top tourism officials said Monday that the national media missed the boat by dwelling on negatives rather than on the world-class entertainment inside Las Vegas resorts.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokesman Rob Powers said that for the most part "the coverage that was obtained was positive for the destination." Powers conceded, however, that Las Vegas could have received more TV air time had it displayed fireworks, which were fired off in past years.

"If there had been more outside visuals, it would have given us more coverage," Powers said.

Occasional shots of the Las Vegas Strip and performers such as Barbra Streisand and Carlos Santana flashed across the nation's TV screens. But network commentators also mentioned controversies about the city's costly hotel rooms and double-digit vacancy rates.

Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, spokeswoman for the Nevada 2000 Millennium Celebration, spent most of New Year's Eve in the city's command center. But based on feedback she received she said the national media should have focused more on the celebrations inside the resorts.

"They weren't concentrating on the heart and soul of the community," Hunt said. "We had the greatest show on Earth with the world's best entertainment. That should have been major news, but it wasn't. Maybe we need to do a better job with the national media."

Similar thoughts were expressed by Thomas Tait, executive director of the Nevada Tourism Commission. Tait, who spent his New Year's in Northern Nevada, said he was "glued to the television set, and the coverage of Las Vegas was minuscule."

Reno TV stations understandably concentrated on celebrations in their own city when they cut away from the networks. But Tait said network coverage of Las Vegas was "downplayed from what I saw of the rest of the world."

Tait said commentators spoke of high room rates in Las Vegas and the fact that "there seemed to be less value for the dollar." But he said they failed to mention that Las Vegas added 12,000 hotel rooms over the past year.

"It seemed like they focused more on the negative than the positive where everyone was having a good time," Tait said. "We have virtually every major performer in Las Vegas, but that was lost in the coverage."

The estimated 240,000 tourists who celebrated the new millennium in Las Vegas -- an average weekend for the resort destination -- fell far short of the 800,000 officials earlier this year estimated would attend. But Powers said visitor turnouts were down at destinations worldwide. Tourism officials industry-wide underestimated the number of people who wanted to stay home to spend New Year's with their families, he said.

"A lot of travel surveys done in the past several months indicated up to 75 percent of Americans said they planned to stay at home," Powers said. "That's something frankly no one envisioned six months ago or a year ago.

"The Y2K factor was certainly an important consideration. A lot of people also said that because it was a special New Year's they wanted it to be more spiritual. They said they wanted to spend it with their families."

There were about 500 arrests on the Strip for alcohol, drug and curfew-related offenses. There also was the death by electrocution of Tod Surmon, 26, of Menlo Park, Calif., who fell from a light pole after touching an electrical wire.

Still, Powers said that the LVCVA was "happy with the way things turned out" for the resort.

"Really, there were few incidents given the size of the event," he said. "On balance we were satisfied. We considered it a successful weekend."

The relative lack of outdoor visuals was not limited to Las Vegas.

TV personality Jay Leno made sarcastic comments after he was on hand for the lighting of the famed Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.

With fireworks and laser shows canceled for the same event Leno remarked that the mere lighting of the sign in multi-colors paled in comparison to celebrations in other cities.

"It doesn't get any cheesier than that," Leno said.