ShareThisBy RICHARD N. VELOTTA
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
When most Las Vegas residents think about tourists, we envision hipsters taking in after-hours parties hosted by hotel heiresses on the high end or pale-skinned gawkers wearing shorts and funny hats on the other.
Rarely do we consider as tourists the suit-wearing corporate executive who attends corporate meetings at the city's resorts.
But they are, and according to Orbitz for Business, a division of the online travel company, they're coming in greater numbers than ever.
Dean Sivley, chief operating officer and general manager of corporate solutions for Orbitz's parent company Travelport, said corporate meeting bookings more than doubled between 2004 and 2006 for his company.
Orbitz for Business has more than 2,000 corporate customers, with about 80 percent of them staging meetings of 100 people or more. Orbitz also handles some of the corporate big boys, such as McDonald's and Fidelity, which bring more than 2,000 people per meeting.
Sivley said corporate meetings generally comprise a day and a half of company business with a half-day devoted to an activity tourists wouldn't be able to plan on their own, such as a golf tournament or a citywide scavenger hunt in SUVs. Often, a businessperson in town for a corporate meeting will book an extra day or two with family to round out the trip.
Corporations like Las Vegas for the same reasons other tourists do _ it's easy to get here by plane, the restaurant and entertainment offerings are fabulous and lodging is inexpensive. Sivley noted that while room rates have climbed dramatically in Las Vegas over the past couple of years, they're still considerably less than the $400-a-night rates of New York City.
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If you like to gamble, it's much more fun to walk into a casino with a wad of cash, right?
A California entrepreneur has a plan that some casino companies are embracing: Give people money and direct them to two nights in a comped room on the Strip.
Mike Shell, president of M101 Powersports, plans to buy people's sports vehicles _ motorcycles, ATVs and personal watercraft _ and direct them and their money to the slots and table games.
Shell's company is building a 500,000-square-foot warehouse and a retail outlet. He'll buy vehicles that are less than six years old, refurbish them and resell them.
Shell is betting that sellers frustrated that they haven't found a buyer will come to him in Las Vegas, where he will be waiting with cash. He has approached several resorts about offering comped rooms to his customers with the promise that they'll have cash in their pockets when they get there.
Shell's warehouse can house between 10,000 and 15,000 vehicles at its peak and is expected to open by summer.
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When the NBA stars and their posses roll into Las Vegas this week, they should have plenty of transportation to take them from party to party.
Earlier this month, the Nevada Taxicab Authority approved a request to allow up to 320 additional cabs on streets during the weekend of the game, even though regulators acknowledged that those in town for the game would clearly be "a limo crowd."
So the Transportation Services Authority, the state agency that regulates limousines, voted to allow limo suppliers to add 77 vehicles to the mix. Clark County has about 2,600 operating taxis and 1,250 limousines.
The NBA has specifications for the type of limos it wants available to players and administrators, said Sally Snead, senior vice president of worldwide meetings and events for Alexandria, Va.-based Carey Worldwide Meetings & Events, which has been contracted to provide transportation for the NBA. The SUV is the limo style of choice for players and administrators.
