Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Arizona boycott unlikely to benefit Vegas tourism

Las Vegas Immigration Rally

Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun

Activists march down Las Vegas Boulevard on Saturday during a rally for immigration reform.

Las Vegas Immigration Rally

Participants cheer at a rally for immigration reform outside the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse on May 1. Launch slideshow »

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Arizona’s controversial new law aimed at illegal immigrants has some organizations considering canceling conventions and trade shows in Arizona, but the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is not trying to get those groups to move their events here.

“While we certainly want to generate as much new business as we can, it’s not good business practice to capitalize on other destinations when they’re being unfairly portrayed or attacked,” said Vince Alberta, a spokesman for the LVCVA.

Arizona lawmakers last month passed legislation that allows local police to question individuals about their immigration status if officers believe they are not in the country legally.

Opponents of the policy say it gives authorities a green light to harass Hispanics, and they mobilized quickly to organize boycotts against the state. San Francisco and St. Paul, Minn., are forbidding public employees from traveling to Arizona on business, and Los Angeles, San Diego and Oakland are considering similar bans.

The American Bar Association and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, organizers of the 2010 Equal Justice Conference set for May 13-15 in Phoenix, struggled with the decision to go forward with the event.

“From the moment the bill was signed into law, we knew we faced a big dilemma — hold the Equal Justice Conference ... in a location that sanctions laws that target the very communities we represent and support, or cancel the conference,” NLADA President Jo-Ann Wallace said in an online message explaining the organization’s withdrawal from participating in the conference. “We do not believe that we should play an institutional role in potentially placing our members in the position of suffering the indignity and abuse of rights and freedoms that laws like this promulgate.”

The ABA is continuing with plans to hold the conference.

Other high-profile events reportedly are in the cross-hairs of organized pressure too. Opponents of the legislation will try to have Major League Baseball’s 2011 All-Star Game moved from downtown Phoenix, and others hope to torpedo the city’s bid to attract the Republican National Convention.

Shouldn’t Las Vegas, which has seen the Great Recession hammer the local tourism economy, step in try to get those organizations to meet in Southern Nevada instead?

LVCVA President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter says no.

“Whatever the difficulties are (on the immigration issue), they need to be resolved, but you shouldn’t use the tourism industry as the vehicle to protest,” Ralenkotter said.

Although the LVCVA is working to lock in long-term contracts for several of its major shows, citing the importance of the meetings and convention industry, the organization isn’t willing to take advantage of an unpopular political decision in Arizona.

“Anybody who makes a change for whatever reason, we’ll treat that the same way as we do any other leads that come in. If somebody contacts us, we’ll work the lead back to the hotels as we normally do,” he said.

Alberta said Las Vegas was in the disadvantaged position a year ago when some people misinterpreted remarks made by President Barack Obama about attending meetings and conventions in the city.

He said he wasn’t aware of any convention authority that attempted to leverage the Obama remarks to take business away from Las Vegas.

Las Vegas has reached out to some organizations when a natural disaster prevented a city from hosting an event. When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the LVCVA contacted organizations about relocating their events to Southern Nevada.

“Las Vegas stepped up in that instance, but we would not actively try to steal business on a permanent basis,” Alberta said.

The LVCVA works with Destination Marketing Association International to strengthen the trade show industry to make it larger, but there is no written code of ethics regarding convention sales and other business practices, Alberta said.

Another organization that has weighed in on how tourism has been affected by the immigration debate is the U.S. Travel Association, which issued a statement saying the boycott is counterproductive.

“Immigration reform is an important and sensitive topic for Arizona and the country at large,” said Roger Dow, CEO of the association. “This complex issue should be resolved on the merits of various proposals, not by holding an industry and its 300,000 employees hostage to politics.

“We appreciate the acknowledgment that travel is a major economic force in Arizona and across the country. We need to protect this critical aspect of our economy and reward hardworking Americans instead of proposing boycotts that will lead to job losses and economic hardship for families and local communities. It is inappropriate to punish the men and women of our industry who have done no harm to others.”

Representatives of another Nevada industry that is dependent on Arizona — the Grand Canyon air tour industry — say there has been little backlash from customers.

Robert Graff, corporate vice president of marketing for Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters, said only three reservations for the upcoming travel season have been canceled as a result of the immigration debate. Papillon has about 3,000 reservations a day through the busy summer season.

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