Average tourists key to vitality

The recent news about a dip in tourism numbers for the

Las Vegas Valley brings up the question:

What is going to be done to improve this statistic?

There are a number of ways to help ensure the numbers don’t dwindle, including lowering rooms rates for the average visitor, providing more comps for food and beverage, offering show and entertainment deals, and bringing back free parking.

The resorts’ focus on higher rollers, or so-called whales, is flawed since that’s an extremely small segment of the total aggregate amount of Strip visitors.

The argument for catering to the free-spending gamblers is they lose obscene amounts of money, but that’s eventually a shortsighted approach for keeping tourists coming to their properties.

Resorts need to again focus on the so-called average tourist as opposed to solely focusing on short-term prospects presented by the “whales.”

Taking a long-term look will help stave off potential dips in visitor numbers.

Joan Miller, Las Vegas