VEGAS.com buys LV tour company

Jennifer Shubinski

Wednesday, March 2, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

VEGAS.com, a travel planning and booking Web site that focuses on Las Vegas, has expanded its Las Vegas presence with the purchase of Casino Travel & Tours.

Casino Travel & Tours, a tour company that was established in Las Vegas more than 20 years ago by Jody and the late Dr. Elias Ghanem, has a Web site and has served guests via front desk retail locations on and off the Strip since 1995. The service offers city tours, tickets to Las Vegas shows, limousine service as well as tours that include trips to the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

The deal combines CT&T's retail knowledge and relationships with VEGAS.com's marketing, technology experience and resources to create an online and retail partnership that will help customers, Howard Lefkowitz, president of VEGAS.com, said.

VEGAS.com is owned by the Greenspun family, owners of the Las Vegas Sun.

Lefkowitz said the purchase, which gives VEGAS.com the majority interest in the company, allows VEGAS.com to enhance and expand its own retail operations.

VEGAS.com currently has retail outlets at the Forum Shops at Caesars, the Stardust and the Nextel monorail station.

"Because VEGAS.com is the No. 1 purveyor of information that exists about the city on the planet, we are excited about the Internet traffic and the retail operations," Lefkowitz said.

VEGAS.com will continue to do business with all of its current tour and limousine partners, he said.

Both companies will continue to operate under their respective management. CT&T employs 118 people and will be absorbed into VEGAS.com as a division, Lefkowtiz said.

"We are looking to do a lot of things. Because of our technology slant and expertise, we are looking to create some system enhancements that will get us more tightly integrated so that we can meet the customers wherever they choose to be meet and enhance the overall customer experience," he said.

Officials with CT&T could not be reached for comment.