Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

MGM exec: Diversity could increase profit

Punam Mathur was looking out over a sea of mostly white faces when she delivered an address on diversity in the tourism industry Tuesday.

But the vice president of community affairs for casino resort giant MGM MIRAGE was quick to respond when asked if that discouraged her.

"Not at all," Mathur said after her speech on one of the key topics of the 20th annual Governor's Conference on Tourism in Las Vegas.

"Diversity is not about color or the number of white faces there are," Mathur said. "It's about awareness. It's about understanding and appreciating the difference and the variety of people in the workplace."

"Celebrating Diversity" is the theme of the three-day conference, which concludes today and has been attended by about 800 people from across the state.

Tuesday night was one of the highlights of this year's event with Claudine Williams, chairwoman of the board of Harrah's Las Vegas and a former state tourism commissioner, being recognized for her contributions to the industry. Williams, a recent inductee of the Gaming Hall of Fame, was honored as a "Legend of the Industry" in a reception and banquet.

During Tuesday's business session, Mathur discussed the value of workplace diversity programs in the state's largest industry, and also explained how having minority workers could generate more of company executives' favorite color -- green.

Mathur, who heads MGM MIRAGE's diversity initiative, said it is important for a company's corporate leadership to set the example of placing value on having minorities in the workplace and not doing it only to be in compliance with federal laws.

"There are three stages to workplace diversification," Mathur said. "Compliance through diversity -- not breaking the law -- inclusion through diversity -- that's where I think we are now -- and strength through diversity."

Mathur, a member of the state Tourism Commission, said workplace diversity can be achieved by including minorities at all levels of the corporation and being alert to including minority faces in things like company brochures and advertising pieces. Doing that sends a message to customers that the company is able to serve people of all cultures, she said.

MGM MIRAGE has worked hard to diversify its workplace, she said. Of the company's 41,695 employees nationwide in 2002, 51.7 percent were minorities. That's up from 50.5 percent of 40,902 employees in 2001. Mathur said the more recent count of employees includes 726 minority managers of the 2,594 total, or 28 percent.

Paying attention to diversifying the workplace should pay off in customer loyalty, Mathur said, because minority customers are going to be more comfortable in an environment where minority employees are present. That's important because minority groups are growing in the United States. Currently, one in four Americans are considered minorities -- by 2010, one in three will be.

Mathur said other research on minorities indicates ethnic groups have growing purchasing power in the United States and that people of color should be considered an emerging market worthy of pursuing. Blacks nationwide have a purchasing power of $688 billion while Hispanics have $653 billion, Asians $344 billion and American Indians, $43 billion.

Other minority groups hold even greater economic power, she said. The disabled have purchasing power of $1 trillion, women, $4 trillion, and gays and lesbians, $485 billion.

Mathur said MGM MIRAGE is carefully developing a marketing program around the Cirque du Soleil show "Zumanity," being performed at the New York-New York hotel-casino. The show, which opened earlier this year, has been embraced particularly by the gay community, she said. As a result, MGM MIRAGE has run print advertisements in gay and lesbian publications in the San Francisco area.

"I don't know what to say about it other than it ('Zumanity') defies convention," Mathur said.

Knowing that marketing to gays is challenging because of the reaction of some other patrons, Mathur said the company had to make a decision and heavily weighed research that said 97 percent of the American gay population has taken a vacation in the past 12 months and 56 percent have taken three or more vacations in that time frame.

"There has been some slight tension at New York-New York," Mathur said. "Eventually, it came down to acknowledging that we'd lose some customers, but if it costs one or two to get 15 or 20 others, that's OK."

Mathur said research on minority spending patterns also revealed that blacks are the most active group when it comes to convention attendance, with many of them attending reunion gatherings; that marketing to Hispanics is somewhat challenging because there are 24 different cultures represented by Hispanic heritage; that more than 60 percent of the nation's Asian population lives in the western United States; and that women make 70 percent of all household travel decisions and that women made half the business trips in 2001 compared with 1.7 percent of them in 1970.

Travel experts say reaching minority groups and people of other cultures is important if Nevada is going to continue to pursue international markets.

Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, who chairs the Nevada Commission on Tourism, said the state would establish a tourism office in Beijing, China, following her trip there in October.

Hunt and Gov. Kenny Guinn opened the session with remarks about how important serving a diverse audience is to Nevada's growth.

The state already has representatives in Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Guinn also praised the diversification of the state's marketing program and how it is attempting to attract adventure tourists.

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