LVCVA could change ad plans if tax revenue drops

Monday, Nov. 12, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority this week will begin assessing the extent of the downturn in room tax revenues from the terrorist attacks and begin determining how that could affect efforts to promote the city.

Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing, said financial results from September would be available to the LVCVA this week while October results would be reported in mid-December.

Once the agency assesses how far off revenue will be, it will be able to make decisions about future ad campaigns, Ralenkotter said Friday after a news conference by Sen. Harry Reid on the state of Las Vegas tourism.

The LVCVA collected $120.5 million in room taxes for the 2000 fiscal year. It projected to collect $130 million in room taxes for the 2001-02 fiscal year.

But 2001-02 revenues will be off with the downturn in visitor volume since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington that have cut into nearly every segment of the tourism industry.

Ralenkotter said once the revenue picture clears, his department would reassess its advertising strategy. He said the LVCVA already had planned ad campaigns before the attacks and it became a matter of retargeting the audience and changing the message.

The LVCVA spent $34.4 million in advertising last fiscal year and has budgeted $48.4 million this year.

The LVCVA spent about $8 million in a campaign known as "High Roller Fantasy" last summer and $13.5 million in October for its "It's Time for You" campaign, featuring previously unreleased music by Frank Sinatra.

Meanwhile, the agency said Friday that visitor volume was off by 14.1 percent, from 2.9 million in September 2000 to 2.5 million a year later. For the year, visitor volume is off 0.6 percent, from 27.1 million for the first nine months of 2000 compared with 26.9 million for the first nine months of 2001.

Occupancy levels fell between 11.5 and 15.1 percentage points in the same time frame. September occupancy levels went from 87.9 percent in 2000 to 73.7 percent this year.

Midweek occupancy suffered the biggest downturn, 15.1 points, from 84.4 percent in 2000 to 69.3 percent this year. Weekend occupancy fell from 94.1 percent to 82.6 percent for the same time frame.

But LVCVA officials say they're already detecting rebounds in nearly every category, which is what prompted Reid to conduct his Friday news conference.

With a background of construction sounds echoing through the Las Vegas Convention Center Friday, Reid, D-Nev., declared the city open for business. Reiterating comments from President Bush earlier in the week, Reid said Americans should go about with their business -- and that includes going on vacation or attending trade shows like Comdex, which started Sunday.

"We'd all be doing the terrorists a favor if we stayed home," Reid said with representatives of the travel industry at his side.

It was unclear if this morning's American Airlines plane crash in New York would prompt tourism promoters to refine their pitch urging Americans to travel and go about their usual business.

Reid told the tourism representatives that Washington lawmakers are considering a number of bills that would stimulate the tourism industry. Proposals range from investing in transportation infrastructure to providing tax cuts and credits for people who buy tickets on buses, trains, planes and cruise ships.

Reid is a co-sponsor of the American Travel Industry Stabilization Act, which would provide $5 billion in loans to companies hurt by the terrorist attacks. He said he and other members of Nevada's congressional delegation back other tourism stimulus proposals making their way through the legislative process.