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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The headliner topic at Las Vegas’ tourism board meeting today was the sliding tourism trend and the LVCVA’s recent TV commercial/ad campaign that came off as a generic Las Vegas tourist spot that didn’t address the declining tourist numbers in Sin City.
Naturally, LVCVA Chief Marketing Officer Kate Wik gave a rosy presentation about the “Fabulous Las Vegas” ad campaign that one person, Jeff Broman @GoTravelzing, on social media described as, “Looks like a copy of Carnival Cruise line ads from the late 80’s and 90’s. Did nothing to change my opinion of what the problem is.”
“It has to endure,” LVCVA CEO/President Steve Hill said of the new ad campaign during the board meeting.
But beneath all this sexy, attention-grabbing talk about dropping tourism and the “Fabulous” ad in Las Vegas is the fact that the governing board of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) approved million-dollar payouts to the National Basketball Association (NBA) for three games at T-Mobile Arena in December and ESPN Productions for season-opening college football games at Allegiant Stadium from 2027 to 2030.
The LVCVA board membership consists of local Las Vegas area elected officials and private hotel company executives. Rarely do any of the board members quiz LVCVA staff about why it’s spending tens of million of dollars on sports events that are supposed to attract fans.
The LVCVA gave $1 million to the NBA and $2.65 million to ESPN Productions.
The NBA is staging its in-season tournament semifinals and final at T-Mobile Arena Dec. 14 and 16. LVCVA Chief Operating Officer Brian Yost described the deal for a few minutes before the board members asked no questions and posed no comments before the $1 million was approved.
It was ditto for the $2.65 million given by the LVCVA to ESPN Productions, with one board member abstaining.
On the sports front, marketing firm owner Richard Manhattan of Las Vegas-based Propyrion spoke during the public comments period, addressing “procurement irregularities” in a LVCVA contract granted to Position Sports to work on producing the College Football Playoff (CFP) title game at Allegiant Stadium in Jan. 2027.
The LVCVA knows about the news that there’s a drop in tourism in Las Vegas. But before that was discussed, the publicly-funded government agency honored the “Hospitality Heroes,” local workers in the tourism industry.
Then there was Yost discussing the MAGIC fashion show by deploying puns like “stitching” and “threading the needle” in his presentation.
Then LVCVA marketing chief Wik addressed the elephant in the LVCVA meeting room — the hurting tourism numbers and the agency’s response of running a “Fabulous Las Vegas” ad campaign.
She pointed out that even the NFL Las Vegas Raiders even got involved by allowing neon Las Vegas signs to be installed during Allegiant Stadium player walkout hallways that are highlighted in TV game broadcasts.
Wik said the campaign was well received according to pre-launch feedback. And she said there are tourism money values and bargains to be had if visitors did research.
“They’re not looking very hard,” Wik said of people complaining that the costs are too high and there are not enough good deals.
Again, there was little discussion. There was one comment about the national Las Vegas tourism news, with board member, Chamber chief Mary Beth Sewald, praising the “Fabulous Las Vegas,” campaign.
PSA
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