State tourism group won’t team up with larger convention

By Richard N. Velotta (contact)

Fri, Sep 18, 2009 (3 a.m.)

COURTESY PHOTO

This ad featuring a smiling dog promoting Nevada's "dog days of winter" was rejected by the marketing committee of the Nevada Tourism Commission.

No decision has been reached on whether a scaled-down version of the Governor’s Tourism Conference will be held in December, but one thing is fairly certain: The conference won’t be held along with a larger event such as the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association show.

In a Nevada Tourism Commission marketing meeting last week, Director Dann Lewis said he feared governor’s conference events would be lost if held with a larger show.

“We’d be totally overwhelmed,” said Lewis, who was asked by the commission in August to investigate whether a Governor’s Conference Lite could be organized on short notice so that state tourism representatives could gather and discuss important issues.

Lewis said he talked with former Tourism Commissioner Van Heffner, who heads the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association, about meeting in conjunction with the association, but Lewis said he thought it wouldn’t work.

The 2008 Governor’s Conference was canceled two weeks before the event in Reno when Gov. Jim Gibbons called a special legislative session to address the state’s budget crisis. The expense of the conference was an issue because it was expected to cost $300,000 more than what registration fees would bring in.

Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who heads the Tourism Commission, suggested a scaled-down version of the conference be scheduled, and Lewis said he was interested in developing a program addressing timely tourism issues.

In another matter, the marketing committee rejected two ads developed by the commission staff promoting the winter ski season in Northern Nevada, the Ruby Mountains near Elko and Mount Charleston near Las Vegas.

Committee members were unimpressed with print ads depicting a smiling dog promoting Nevada’s “dog days of winter” and two hands forming a heart shape over a winterscape with a tag line of “Capture your heart in Nevada.”

Neither ad, they said, captured the essence of the Nevada winter experience or use Northern Nevada’s biggest ski asset, Lake Tahoe. Commissioners said they wanted an image that “kept readers from turning the page.”

Committee members recommended resurrecting a popular icon ad that has run in past years showing showgirls on ski trails at Lake Tahoe. Other Nevada icon ads have been scaled back because a contract for use of the images of popular entertainers had expired.

The state has a $1.5 million ad budget for the campaign, which would run from November through January. It features print, broadcast and Internet components and is heavy on mobile channels appealing to a hip, young and active crowd.

Dallas and Chicago — locations with nonstop flights to Reno-Tahoe International Airport — are among key markets for the ads, but commissioners suggested that the staff not neglect the drive-in market from Northern California since many travelers are staying closer to home for ski vacations during the recession.