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Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010 | 5:48 p.m.
Sun Coverage
Las Vegas can no longer pride itself on being the top tourist destination in the United States, according to a new survey.
Vegas had been the country's No. 1 tourist destination in an annual survey of trips booked by travel agents since 2003, but a report released this week found that tourists who were surveyed late late year preferred the family-oriented attractions in Orlando, Fla.
For the first time in seven years, Las Vegas fell to No. 2, according to the annual Travel Trends survey by the Travel Leaders Franchise Group.
The survey was conducted from Nov. 30 to Dec. 18 and asked 521 Travel Leaders officials across the country to compile a list of the top five destinations they booked for customers in 2010. More tourists chose Orlando, Fla., for attractions such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios, than Las Vegas.
"Orlando landing at number one shows the remarkable resiliency strength in family-oriented destinations, while Las Vegas appears to still be suffering unfairly from the intense scrutiny associated with last year's spate of canceled conventions," Roger E. Block, president of Travel Leaders, said in a statement.
After Orlando and Las Vegas, an Alaskan cruise; New York City; Maui and Honolulu, Hawaii; Chicago; Phoenix; Washington, D.C.; and Los Angeles rounded out the top 10.
I am not surprised. I been to Orlando for Conventions and they really do offer a good venue. Not only in attractions, but restaurants, entertainment, and much more.
More and more conventions are heading to Orlando and Atlanta - primarily from the arrogance of Las Vegas. Vegas no longer supports a FAMILY venue, the strip is a major headache to travel. Not to mention the Convention Center is out dated for some of the larger events.
Get a clue LV Sun..the reason has less to do with "scrutiny" than Vegas' focus on high rend hotels and restaurants. Orlando is a much better value and much more to do. Our company stopped having a party during ShoWest in March because of the rising costs and increases hotel rates. Every year kept going up and up. We are sticking with ShoEast
How many people really use travel agencies anymore?
President Obama told Americans not to visit Las Vegas anymore.
Dang it President Obama. I am sure someone will find a reason to blame to police and fire departments too.
President Obama told Americans not to visit Las Vegas anymore.
...and Harry Reid let it go. Sad.
Las Vegas shouldn't vote for Reid anymore.
The greedy corporate economic terrorists who run Vegas have finally managed to destroy our tourist industry here. Congrats fellas hope your proud of your pathetic selves..
Obama never said not to come to vegas.
People are just disgusted by the SEXUAL PREDATOR JOHN ENSIGN.
Who wants their kids near that sick man?
Gibbons might try to join in with Ensign in a parking garage.
Nick: are you in love with John Ensign?
let me see orlando have attraction disneyland i think they have seaworld 6 flags park. we a zoo that a pos lake that slowly shrinking oh yea we have a desert with trash and dead animal carcass. if u have a family were would u take them to. if i have a family i would take them to orlando. oh yea we have strip club hooker on tropicana those are nice attraction lol. this city is for grown up not for kids. it seem to me when we start getting aways family attraction we starting loosing people (tourist)
we starting loosing tourist way back in 2008 2007
the union goons in vegas have run a lot of convention business out of town and we stopped giving people new reasons to come here.
it's just bebe stores and cheesy nightclubs. one after another.
yuck.
Obama had nothing to do with Vegas decline!!!! Vegas is just no longer FAMILY friendly. Where are the attractions??? You can only do Circus Circus for so long. The strip is no longer a safe place day or night. Buffet prices are sky high and the quality of food doesnt support the increases. They're building nothing but condos etc.... IF you want family to come the kids just want to have fun and Vegas is not the place for them!
Vegas is no longer friendly to anyone with an income less than 6 figures.
I have so often heard from misinformed people how the "family thing" in Las Vegas didn't work. I'm not sure where that came from but it seemed to coincide with the LVCVA's roll-out of the "What Happens in Vegas" campaign. From that point forward we saw sweeping changes that essentially resulted in the majority of the casinos attempting to replicate the success of the Palms by making everything ultra-sexy, ultra-modern and ultra-expensive. All anyone has to do is to look at the LVCVA website at the annual revenues of the city to see that the family thing was working. Furthermore when the two main casino companies (Harrah's and MGM) decided to embark on their sexy overhauls of stalwart properties they alienated millions of potential visitors and teed off a large portion of the locals. None of us will ever forget how MGM turned Treasure Island upside down and ruined what was a "must see" casino. The Luxor is a mess, they have a castle called Excalibur that they decided no longer needed dragons or knights or trees outside. Slick, slick, slick, modern, modern, modern, and way too pricey for 98 percent of the world's populus. Well now here we are sinking under the weight of a massive world-wide recession and we've alienated so many people and embittered the local population (i.e. James Murren "I don't care if locals visit Aria...). The Strip casinos are now nothing more than the playgrounds of its executives and our community is suffering for their poor judgement. So what does Orlando have that we don't? Well let's see. There's the 25,000 acre Disney World resort that makes Vegas look like a whore house in Virginia City. They have Universal Studios, a nationally recognized Shakespeare Theatre, a respectable art museum, a a state of the art performing arts center. They have sports teams up the bazoo including an NBA team, Sea World, Island of Adventure, water parks...wait. What am I going on about? We have nightclubs where it will cost you a minimum of $300 if you want to sit down and CityCenter, whose King doesn't care if we, the people, like it or not because he's a genius and is going to ram "culture" down all of our throats and "inspire" us. Vegas is in bad shape and the seeds of its destruction were sown long before the recession began. Ditch the topless pools that no one goes to and reopen your arcades.
The corporations have destroyed this town. This town used to be fun to come to and very affordable. Now everything is so overpriced, its a joke. The one thing, this town should never be marketed as a family place, but make it geared to the average person. Like it used to be, An Adult Playground.
I've been to Las Vegas 14 times in the last 5 years.
Never been to Orlando in all my 50 years.
So there are some of us who still put Las Vegas ahead of Orlando. Who wants to go deal with a million other people's kids.
If I want to see Mickey, Disneyland is a 2 hour drive from here.
Nick, I'm no Ensign fan, But you have to include your man Bill Clinton, and John Edwards, etc. on the same list you put Ensign on.
sportyyetpratical - paragraphs; they're not just for breakfast anymore.
Las Vegas out priced itself.
Too bad; not so sad.
Great post bighitter1
And how in the heck could some swampland in Florida become a more popular tourist destination than Las Vegas.
oh yeah, see bighitter1's post.
ya, when some blowhard types more than 5 lines without a line break...i don't read that post.
I am in the trade show business and can tell you that Orlando is more "business friendly" Than Vegas. When my company sets up a display, and I need a union worker to carry in 3 boxes of literature because "its on a cart", and that just cost me $105, then the value is in Orlando for sure..If Vegas keeps that mentality as it has, it will turn into a problem that Chicago had a few years back - they lost alot of conventions ... Lets start thinking business sense people..companies dont want to get raped and piliaged everytime they turn around..most wil ljust drop out of the show and as you see with other conventions, they are getting smaller and smaller..
Las Vegas used to be a place you could go with some money in your pocket, where you had a chance to double it, or lose it. Even upon losing it, you could still enjoy a cheap room, good food, and get pretty drunk if ya wanted to. These days, you go and lose your money within the first ten minutes and then have to sit in your room which you paid a fortune for and watch TV because you can't afford to do anything else.. Shame..
Vegas hates to admit it is a loser! What does R&R Advertising say about their "What Happens..." slogan that has backfired...they just do not want to spend any of their money to produce something more creative for us. It does not work, and the proof is now in this article. Why won't the LVCVA Board see this and ask for competitive bids. The prior ad, for years, The American Way To Play said it all...this is just part of Vegas' problems...we used to care...but not now with 'corporate america'....big joke.
"Sic transit gloria." This too shall pass. Las Vegas will regain its number one destination status as soon as the recovery gets underway.
still beating the dead horse
Was at city center last night,,OUCH.These casino types are really delusional to think this will make money
crystals once again packed with the sheep herding around peeking at 590.00 denim jeans,and taking pictures in front of Tiffanys.How does that make money for city center?
out of the 16 BJ tables i observed,only 7 were full,and those were the 25.00 tables.I highly doubt city center was built on the 25.00 blackjack player in mind.
Well in fairness to las vegas,it is January,but then again the CES is here,and that should have brought more to the city center,oh nevermind the retail robots working the display areas cant afford a hot dog at the city center.
peace out
I visited Orlando about 20 times in my life, and
last year we bought a condo in VEGAS!!!!!!!!!
We love it here :) I just don't like the guys standing on the strip in groups that have the tees on that say *girls to your room**and they give out naked girls cards.
SICK!!!
I love Vegas** It's so beautiful**the mountains are just amazing*the sunny weather makes me smile**
We live in NJ and everything sucks here *trust me**
the only thing thats good is there is no crime in my city and I feel very safe.
Viva Las Vegas :)
Bye ozymandias.
"sportyyetpratical - paragraphs; they're not just for breakfast anymore."
Today's line of the day brought to you by....Needleguy
The reasons for traveling to Vegas and Orlando are drastically different.
Vegas tried the family crowd. They all came, looked, and left without leaving any dough behind. Vegas switched back to the Sin City concept, but it really does not exist.
Gambling sure, but many states now have legal gambling. Vegas cops beat the strip clubs and prostitutes to death so there is nothing there to come out for.
Vegas doesn't have much offering....and what is offerred is priced out of sight.
If Las Vegas was not so close to Las Aangles SanDiego and the other large California population centers it be nothing. The strip would be nothing more then a highway to nowheres
Evey time a Las Veagan see a car with a California plate you other to bow down in humbel gratitude.
Why do Califorinas keep coming back to Southern Nevada to get ripped off. beats me.
meleonmunchie, LeOrn ho to spIll. Ju most be a prodick of Kal a fortia pubic edumacation sistem.
We Las Veagans are so smatter than yu. Yu Las Aangles should bow down in humbel to us Veagans.
We have big ho tell named The Winn, very nise.
We have udder big ho tell named Man da laid, very bic. Come here and spind money and play pie gal. Yu Californas need to si strip axe called Teri Fartor, he rely good.
comparing vegas to orlando is like comparing apples to oranges
in vegas some clubs open at 2am, in orlando they are all shut at 2am
wet and wild is big there but didn't work in vegas, why?? because both cities attract different types of visitors
culturechange; other states have their own themeparks too, but has this affected orlando?? no, those are just a taster
Get rid of the mexicans handing out the 'girls to your room' cards. They clog the drains and fly around and make a mess. Same thing with the magazines that promote that. Do people really used those things?
i agree with JERRY D we don't have nothing here for the family no attraction. convention didn't work hard to keep them like always just like this city they sat on there hand with there thumb up there butt. good job city and convention industry.
Orlando hotels do not double the rates on weekends --
Orlando airport is well run -
Orlando can handle the convention crowd very well -
The fine dining is as good and 20% cheaper (excluding buffets)-
You can rent a car and go to beaches with Canaveral/ Space Coast attractions in about the same time as it takes to go to Hoover Dam R/T with traffic -
The casino corporate mentality kills Vegas...Yes, a broken record on this forum -but worth repeating! These clueless CEO's tweak the payouts down, down, down. Skimp on the comps down, down, down. For a few years they look like a genius! The spreadsheet is sweet...Rev UP! Expenditures DOWN! But they fail to realize the suicide by 1000 cuts - it just takes a few years to show up on that once so pretty spreadsheet.
The one thing this article does not mention is the South/Central American and Caribe visitors going to Orlando that would not normally go to Vegas anyway. Going to "Disney /Magic Kingdom" is like a rite of passage for those with the visa and coinage to make the trip. It's a status symbol in Brazil...they fly to Miami for a week then charter bus to Orlando.
When you have the Mayor of a city so starved for attention,that the mayors office allows holly "peepshow" madison to barge in and drivle,all the while filming the scene for a reality tv show SAYS it all about this S#$%hole
peace out
Las Vegas never really was intended to be a vacation destination for "families" anyway. To see tourists walking around the hotels and casinos with strollers is ridiculous. They belong in Orlando and Disney World not in Vegas. Vegas was created for "adults" and should remain for adults, not families with children. That is why we have playgrounds and bars.
doubledown_deadender; fine dining in orlando?? the only place i know is normans at the Ritz-Carlton