Rossi Ralenkotter Photo by: Steve Marcus
It doesn’t happen very often that Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, skips a meeting with a news media representative when it involves talking about tourism in Southern Nevada.
But cancel he did.
He had a very good reason, and it had nothing to do with dodging questions.
Ralenkotter got an invitation to have lunch with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who addressed the Global Travel and Tourism Summit at Aria this month. Hmmm, an interview with VEGAS INC or a meeting with the president of a neighboring country that has made tourism one of its pillars of economic growth? The choice was easy and we lost.
But Ralenkotter is always one to honor his commitments, and he agreed to an interview before jetting off to the US Travel Association’s International pow wow in San Francisco.
As head of the LVCVA, the city’s tourism marketing agency, Ralenkotter led the effort to develop one of the most successful (and ubiquitous) advertising taglines in history: “What happens here, stays here.”
The LVCVA also manages the Las Vegas Convention Center, which hosts 60 of the 250 largest trade shows in North America.
A 60-year resident of Las Vegas and a graduate of Bishop Gorman High School, Ralenkotter is recognized as one of the travel and tourism industry’s top faces and he serves on several national committees.
He spoke with VEGAS INC just after the three-day international tourism conference that was deemed one of the most significant business gatherings in the city’s history:
Why was the Global Travel and Tourism Summit important to Las Vegas?
As I was asked over the course of the conference and I’ve said before, this is like the Olympics of the tourism industry throughout the world. This organization is made up of CEOs from throughout the travel industry, throughout the world. If you look at its mission statement, it is to raise the level of the economic and social contribution of travel and tourism and to talk about jobs and how it generates economic development. It dovetails into all of the efforts we were putting forth to improve travel between countries. So they selected the United States as the host country. It’s kind of like the process they have for the Olympics. Las Vegas was then selected as the city. It’s really appropriate now and critical for Las Vegas to host it because we’re rebounding from the effects of the recession here and globally. We talked about visa application and visa waiver issues. It also gave us the opportunity to show that business gets done in Las Vegas and that was a great message to send.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spent $1.5 million to sponsor the event with the understanding that it probably would be recovered in sponsorships. Did the LVCVA recover the full $1.5 million?
I know that the WTTC brought aboard quite a few sponsors in the last 90 days. When we do the final accounting, then I’ll be able to give you that final number. We look at three things to determine the value. No. 1, the fact that we were selected from cities worldwide to host this was important. No. 2, it brought about 1,000 of these CEOs and presidents to our destination. The economic impact of that was about $1 million. The last part is the amount of national and international press that we have received and will continue to receive as a result of the conference being here. I know you saw “the round.” It was a giant billboard for Las Vegas and we intended it to be that way. That was great. Now that it’s over, we have to measure the media value, which should be substantial because it’s not only national coverage, but it reached across borders. It falls into place with our goals to increase international visits to Las Vegas. This past year, we were at 18 percent market share. Our goal over the next ten years is to take that to 30 percent. Considering that three countries make up 70 percent of that—Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico—there’s a gigantic marketplace out there of untapped demand for Las Vegas. As some of the visa waiver situations come into play, we should be able to get there.
One of the issues discussed was the importance of business tourism. Yet, the industry wants the State Department to use videoconferencing technology to solve the visa interview problem. Is there a contradictory message being sent?
The WTTC released an international report on the importance of face-to-face meetings and trade shows. Adam Sacks of Tourism Economics worked with Oxford Economics on the report and on a national report. It was important for the WTTC to firmly establish the value of meetings and conventions. It’s a 10-to-1 return internationally and a 12-to-1 return domestically. The issue with the videoconferencing is how we bring people to the United States and to welcome them. No one wants to compromise security. It’s paramount. Nothing that we are going to propose is intended to compromise any of that. But on the other side of it, there are some business ways to facilitate the visa application process. There are 222 consulates and embassies throughout the world representing the United States. They’re responsible for processing the paperwork. There’s no consistency with it, and we’ve talked about wait times of 120 days. Roger Dow of the US Travel Association wants to cut that wait time to 10 days. That can be done with a variety of things—adding more staff, having longer hours, possibly being open on Saturdays. The other idea is the use of videoconferencing to do the interview process.
I guess this isn’t an issue in the US, but if you videoconferenced in Brazil, for example, and applicants wouldn’t have to travel to the embassy location, doesn’t that take money out of the pockets of the tourism industry?
Most definitely.
Among the most discussed issues was the broken visa application process. Are you more optimistic now about that getting fixed than before the event?
The recession has allowed the travel industry to talk about the importance of jobs, economic development and economic stimulus. And the criticisms of corporate travel meetings and incentive travel have raised awareness of Congress and the administration as to the overall value of travel. So I think the messages are resonating. The fact that when President Barack Obama was in Brazil and Chile on the same trip, he talked about “open skies” and the visa process. So he was aware of that and became part of the conversation with both countries. Our congressional delegation has been very, very targeted in these issues. Sen. Harry Reid was the point man for the Travel Promotion Act and the Corporation for Travel Promotion, which will be the brand marketers for the United States and will be looking for ways to break down barriers to visiting our country. Extending the length of time for a business visa to three years would be helpful. There was discussion in one panel about the amount of business that was not conducted because exhibitors and/or delegates couldn’t get into the country. We’re very optimistic now. Business travel is increasing. We’re going to give all these policy recommendations to the Commerce Department and hopefully some of those will go forward.
A senior aide to President Obama, Valerie Jarrett, said she was intrigued with the idea of establishing a cabinet-level tourism position. Do you think that has any legs. Could we someday be calling you Secretary of Tourism Rossi Ralenkotter?
[Laughs] Well, the concept has been put forth over the years. It actually goes back to the White House Conference on Tourism under President Bill Clinton. If you raise it to the level of a cabinet position, it’s important because our industry needs a seat at the table. We touch all levels of economic development. In fact, it’s No. 1, 2 or 3 in its impact in most state economies. The State Department can affect travel and tourism and conventions. Homeland Security and the Commerce Department, too. Tourism and conventions create jobs. You can’t outsource jobs to take care of visitors to your own country.
You mentioned State, Commerce and Homeland Security departments, but there’s also the Transportation Department. And you had Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood talking about a national railroad network.
And roads. The infrastructure within the country to move travelers, whether they’re domestic or international, is critical so that we can continue to have our voice heard because before decisions are made, there needs to be an assessment of, “OK, what impact does this have either positively or negatively on the travel meetings business?” The US Travel Association is doing a lot of advocacy and we’re a part of that. Other organizations within the travel and meetings business are part of the association’s advocacy efforts. We’re now getting one voice to Congress and the administration.
So what’s your gut-level feeling? Is there going to be a Tourism secretary someday?
I can’t predict the future, but from the industry standpoint, it would certainly strengthen our ability to compete throughout the world as well as create the infrastructure for travel in general throughout the country.
And you’re going to put your name in for the job?
I don’t know too much about that. I love Las Vegas and I love my job and I love what I do and I always tell people that there’s nothing better than to market your hometown.
There’s been more and more evidence presented that “What happens here, stays here,” has run its course. Will the LVCVA continue to run the campaign or are other promotions under consideration?
I’ll answer that with the research we just did on our customer base. All our decisions on the marketing side and advertising are based on research. In this last round of research, we knew that there was a new consumer emerging in the United States because of the recession. We found out through our research that there are two basic groups. It’s not so much about demographics or psychographics anymore. It’s about lifestyle and experience and what people are looking for when it comes to travel. The core people of visitors to Las Vegas are people who love Las Vegas and know everything about Las Vegas. There’s more than 40 million in that group. The “What Happens Here” campaign totally resonates with them. They get it and they remember the commercials. Then we have the “persuadables,” who are wannabes. They want to be a core person, but they really don’t have the information, haven’t had as much experience and may never have been here, but they want to come to Las Vegas. For them, it’s all about the value equation and making sure they make the right decision. It’s about the experience. For that group, you have to talk more about what I call the retail side of it—who’s appearing in Las Vegas, the restaurants, the shopping, the sightseeing, the newness of what’s happening, the rock concerts, all of those things. So we target some of that. As long as the “What Happens Here” campaign resonates with our customer base, which it continues to do, we’ll go forward with that. We have plans for more commercials in that vein. But, we’re also doing more short-term things, like our summer campaign: “Life is short, but summer’s shorter.” That’s really a retail message to talk about how you need to make a decision now to come to Las Vegas. That should strongly appeal to both the cores and the persuadables.
Some have suggested that there should be a campaign to better explain the dynamic of the Las Vegas community to the world, perhaps in collaboration with community groups. While this may not be as sexy to tourists, would there be some value in reaching out to the world about who we are as a community to encourage more business travel and investment here?
Our mission is to fill rooms in Las Vegas and Clark County. That’s the purpose of the room tax. By talking about things that are happening here and all the things that Las Vegas has to offer, the types of resort properties and all the development and the airport, those are all things that also speak about our community. It speaks to the progressiveness of our community. But we’ve also done a couple of other things. We’ve also worked with the Greater Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Nevada Development Authority. In just 11 months, the NDA has generated 500 leads from its booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center. We’re going to have our first joint sales mission in the fall, where we’ll talk about The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the Mob Museum, the Neon Museum and the development in the community on the tourism side, as well as the business side and the community side. The primary mission is to fill those rooms.