OPINION:

View From The Top: What’s right with Las Vegas

Tom Donoghue / DonoghuePhotography.com

A birds-eye view of the Las Vegas Strip at dusk, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016.

There seem to be two types of essays penned in local papers about life in Las Vegas: the born-and-raised local who defends the city unconditionally and the skeptical transplant who constantly bemoans what it lacks. Well, as an adopted Las Vegan who has lived on both coasts and abroad, I’ve found much to like.

Over the past decade, I’ve put down considerable roots and have business, charitable and civic ties that I don’t plan on unwinding anytime soon. In fact, I’m here for the long haul.

Sure, I’d like to see Las Vegas become less of a boom/bust town, where opportunists pour in when business metrics tilt upward and bolt as soon as the easy money dries up. We need more entrepreneurship in the hospitality sector to capitalize on our more than 42 million tourists each year. Amid gaming regulations, barriers to entry are too high for startups. And while we seek to embrace the future, we are often caught defending brick-and-mortar business models of yore.

There are bright spots, like the cloud-data business Switch and the UFC, a homegrown sports league that became a global phenomenon after most observers had relegated it to the dust bin.

We’ve pioneered integrated resorts and triumphantly exported them around the world. I remember attending the opening of Venetian Macao in 2007 and watching proudly as over 100,000 people streamed through the doors in the first 24 hours. Now Wynn is opening Wynn Palace, which will undoubtedly be something special even in a more competitive Macau casino market.

Domestically, Las Vegas’ loss of its monopoly on gaming has allowed so many other areas to flourish. Nowadays, daylife is as important as nightlife, and festivals help round out the seasonal slow periods in tourism. These are all good things.

In quality-of-life comparisons, Las Vegas continues to hold its own. Its relative small-town feel juxtaposed with big-city attractions is really unsurpassed anywhere in America. Hosting events like presidential debates helps change outdated views of what Las Vegas is all about and allows us to move away from the vice image. And with pro sports on the horizon, what better city to host a future Super Bowl than one with a mild climate and 150,000 hotel rooms within a 15-minute drive of an international airport?

Indeed, I’m always encouraged by the constant reinvention of this city and the verve of its residents. To paraphrase a recent U.S. president, I really don’t see anything wrong with Las Vegas that can’t be cured by what is right with Las Vegas. We just need to decide where to put our focus. We tend to do well cutting through red tape to get things done and get things built. Hopefully, what we’ll build next is a city that locals and transplants can look at through the same lens and equally appreciate.

Nehme E. Abouzeid, MBA, is a former journalist and current executive director of brand marketing for Wynn Las Vegas. In a 13-year career with Las Vegas Sands and Wynn, he has helped develop and market integrated casino-resorts worldwide.

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