Sun coverage
MESQUITE — For those Las Vegas tourism enterprises that think they’ve had it rough during the Great Recession, consider the plight of companies in rural counties.
Not only have they dealt with fewer visitors who spend less, but they live in places where most people rarely go when they come to Nevada for a good time.
Like Pioche. Or Eureka. Or even Laughlin and Mesquite.
More than 230 tourism industry leaders, most from rural counties, wrapped up three days of panels, presentations and networking on Friday at the 21st annual Rural Roundup, sponsored by the Nevada Commission on Tourism.
Participants got pointers on connecting with international visitors, reaching out to Las Vegas residents, using national initiatives to attract tourists, marketing to the gay market, how to effectively use social media and dealing with negative reviews on TripAdvisor.com.
The event at Mesquite’s Casablanca resort was one of the best attended Rural Roundups put on by the commission, which works on tourism promotion for rural counties the same way the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority boosts Southern Nevada.
“Based on some of the comments I’ve heard, I think rural Nevada tourism is starting to rebound,” said Larry Friedman, interim director of the Tourism Commission. “There are some that are still struggling, but the good news is that the Europeans are starting to return.”
Friedman said places like Fallon and Austin are beneficiaries of European travelers who enjoy the wide-open landscapes of Nevada.
“For many people, ‘the loneliest road in America’ is still a great hook,” Friedman said.
He was referring to U.S. 50, which runs east and west 280 miles across the center of the state and was designated by Life magazine in 1986 as America’s loneliest road. Many communities along the route have capitalized on the notoriety with T-shirts, postcards and monuments where tourists can sign log books noting their presence. Friedman said a quarter of the signatures on one log book were from tourists with European addresses.
The importance of foreign visitors was stressed in two Rural Roundup sessions.
Russell Meara, the commission’s representative in its United Kingdom office, told attendees that 2010 was filled with challenges in addition to the economic climate. Travelers endured flight cancellations resulting from an ash cloud from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, snowy weather that closed London airports in December and ongoing strikes by British Airways crews.
In addition, Britain’s air passenger duty was increased to $491, discouraging travel.
But Meara said he is encouraged by increased leisure travel, and the commission has developed two promotions aimed at British citizens — one emphasizing Nevada’s scenic highways and another Lake Tahoe skiing.
Meara said national parks that are relatively close to Las Vegas — Great Basin, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Bryce Canyon and Zion — hold great appeal to British tourists.
Passenger counts have steadily increased on British Airways after the airline introduced nonstop service from London’s Heathrow International Airport in October 2010. That flight seems to have generated new traffic rather than steal business from Virgin America, which runs daily nonstops from Gatwick International Airport.
Meara also said he is encouraged with Virgin’s startup of nonstop flights twice a week between Manchester, England, and Las Vegas.
In another panel, representatives from the offices of Sens. John Ensign and Harry Reid outlined the progress of the Corporation for Travel Promotion, established by the Tourism Promotion Act. The corporation, whose chairman is Las Vegas timeshare executive Stephen Cloobeck, is in the midst of developing a marketing program for the United States directed at international travelers.
Attendees also received tips on marketing to the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transsexual market from Mya Lake Reyes, who specializes in that area for the LVCVA.
Reyes noted that gay tourists outspend the average traveler and is a lucrative niche market to pursue as long as a hotel or tourist attraction avoids a few pitfalls.
Several Las Vegas companies have dedicated GLBT personnel and marketing strategies, and the city is considered one of the gay-friendliest destinations in the country.
Another speaker at the event was Todd Skelton, West Coast advertising sales manager for the controversial travel website TripAdvisor.com.
TripAdvisor posts consumer reviews of traveler experiences at attractions worldwide. Some of the reviews raise the ire of attraction owners who believe they have been unfairly criticized for circumstances beyond their control. Some also have charged that some bad reviews were posted by competitors or that good reviews were planted by friends.
Skelton explained how hotels and attractions can appeal a bad review and start an investigation on the veracity of a review.
TripAdvisor has policies against self-writing positive reviews or colluding with third parties on bad reviews.
Several Southern Nevadans also were recognized with VolunTourism awards at a special dinner.
Among those recognized were Edward Robledo, president and creative director of Emergency Room Creative, Las Vegas, for ads he and his company created to attract visitors to Southern Nevada; Gloria Kritzler of Grand Canyon Tour and Travel for developing a user-friendly website to increase traffic to the area; and Kriza Anne Cruz Dagdag, a student at East Career and Technical Academy in Las Vegas, who won the $1,000 June Stannard Scholarship in an essay contest and plans to pursue a degree in hospitality administration at UNLV.