Bleak numbers force tourism officials to rethink message
By Kathryn Reed
A $300 million decline in gaming revenue at Stateline from 1990 to 2009; the number of employees on the South Shore from 1990 to 2008 going from 13,000 to 7,000; hotel occupancy on both sides of the state line dropping from 57 percent to 43 percent between 2006 and 2009 — these are just some of the facts and figures officials on the South Shore must contend with when looking at the local economy and what to do to turn the rising tide of bad news.
The PowerPoint presentation was prepared by the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority with the help of Ward Bullard who works for Harveys-Harrah’s casinos at the lake. It was first shown to the Douglas County Commission, with the South Lake Tahoe City Council shown the slides this month.
Tourism officials plan to promote the outdoors of Lake Tahoe, with less emphasis on gaming. Photo/Kathryn Reed
Carol Chaplin, executive director of Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, gave the presentation to the council along with her annual report.
With many of the Stateline casino workers living in South Lake Tahoe, what the casinos are doing directly impacts employment levels of city residents and social agencies they may lean on for help.
“In case you think we’re unique here, the same thing is going on at tribal casinos,” Chaplin told the council.
She talked about layoffs at the Indian casinos just west of Lake Tahoe, how their market is shrinking, that they are fighting each other for the same customer, and how their buses to import customers are not working well.
Chaplin said the area that may prove to be a greater threat to the South Shore in the near term is Las Vegas.
“From the Bay Area you can hop on a plane and get a room for less than $100 a night. You didn’t have that a couple years ago,” Chaplin said.
Still, it wasn’t all doom and gloom from the region’s tourism leader.
In Chaplin’s report about how the LTVA did in the last fiscal year, she pointed to the 16 percent increase in attendance at July’s annual celebrity golf tournament, 11 percent increase in traffic to the visitors centers, securing a Nevada Commission on Tourism grant, public relations having a 40-to1 return on investment, and ending the year with 1,000 bucks in the bank.
As the summer advertising rolls out, it will have more to do with promoting the passion of locals, the events that attract young at heart adults and families of all ages, and the South Shore more holistically than it has been done in the past.
Chaplin pointed to the number of amenities Lake Tahoe has that other destinations can never have — the lake itself as one, and the varied experiences available in a relatively small area.
“We recognize our iconic location,” Chaplin said. “We need to capitalize to let people know how much we love this place and that they can too. Gaming is still important, but it’s going through a metamorphosis. We need to broaden our appeal beyond skiing and gaming.”
This town has changed drastically in the time frame of 1990-2009. Were there any CITY council members present? It is time we rethink our marketing focus and let go of the past. Recognize that a local in the time frame above went from buying all goods and services in town. Now we go off the hill(this includes healthcare, sports,music lessons, the list goes on and on). Its time to save what we have-it does not appear our CITY council sees clearly. Spend some money on eye glasses.
What we need is a strip club NOT
Gaming is dead. Yet the LTVA spends most of its time promoting casinos and the celebrity golf tournament. The one campaign the LTVA move forward with that actually promoted the Lake itself included marquee images of the Lake with a nearly naked woman lowering herself into its waters; her reflection in the water showed her out on the town boogying on the dance floor of one of the tacky, meth zombie hip hop clubs at the South Shore. To fix tourism, promote Lake Tahoe’s natural beauty and the recreation opportunities here. This will attract a better class of visitor.
It’s simple to say we are going to promote the outdoors, but the basic infrastructure is largely missing. Despite world class mountains almost all the parking areas providing access are currently gated and locked. Despite the fact that Spring Creek road and Fallen Leaf are plowed, the public is prohibited from using the roads even though well connected cabin owners park behind the gates. Access is decent in the summer, but traffic and lack of reliable public transportation means too much competition for parking.
In the mid-80’s the City of SLT, raised the TOT by 2% for the specific purpose of marketing! Even back then people foresaw the challenges of Vegas and Indian Gaming. Soon, through political maneuvering, the City got that 2% to be treated as part of the General Fund. And every time there was a shortfall in the budget, rather than confront the City’s bloated bureaucracy, and excessive pay & retirement packages, they would try and usually succeed to access that money.
When people would say, “Hey that money is for marketing!” the response would be, “That money just goes to subsidize the casinos!” (Who do in fact control the marketing message.) But if that was the true problem the City had with how the 2% was spent, note, they never said, “Hey this is how we should use the 2% to market the area!” (Perhaps with the clamored for greater emphasis on all of Tahoe’s great outdoor assets.)
Instead, the money has been used for a different subsidy- the previously mentioned bloated bureaucracy! So what do we have now-more City employees than ever, with higher pay & benefits than ever, BUT with a shrinking population and private economy! FYI,-CA unemployment rate-12.5%, NV-13%, City of SLT-17% You reap what you sow!!!
Kona, HI is not the tourist town it once was. All the numbers are down in similar fashion. The big difference, they stopped spending money to try and turn the tide. They offer visitors a wonderful experience with a “this is what we’ve got” attitude. Come visit, don’t come visit. Locals are happy either way.
As someone who lived the ‘glory’ days of “entertainment & excitement”, it is now painfully obvious that those days are waning as the term ‘disposable income’ shrinks into oblivion as well. . .
Over a year ago, a suggestion was made that the time is ripe for a new message, perhaps one for the times – our visitor is now besieged with fallout from the top, whether Congress or Wall Street, who continue to ‘feather their own nest’ way before doing so for their constituents, yet we all still act as if it is coming back sometime soon.
What the world needs is to recognize Tahoe as the natural sanctuary that it is, to ‘fill the sails’ of conceptual R & R, as those who venture far enough up into the mountains deserve more than just ways to spend money.
Tahoe has historically meant many things to many people for many decades, but we still think in terms of this or that quarter on the bottom line, and play games of “ain’t it awful” as not our fault.
As Ronald Reagan once said, “Status Quo (?)- that’s Latin for the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. . .”
The time is now: do we wait until there’s nothing to measure on the balance sheet, then say we can’t afford to do anything (?) That’s the bane of being at the whim of corporate addresses elsewhere. . . this was the value of the entrepreneurial spirit, ala Gross and Harrah.
Reagan said this also!
“Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”
“We are trying to get unemployment to go up, and I think we’re going to succeed.”
No matter what, if we don’t market we will not get folks to come here in any manner that will support the infrastructure we have. So, if you want sidewalks, police, fireman, we need tourism revenue. If you want the roads to morph back to their natural dirt, houses to burn if they catch on fire, quaint old schools without modern ammenities, thats fine. However, don’t plan on having a job and don’t complain.
We can’t get to the total, come here for the beauty, without the tourism tax dollars to bridge the gap. Uncle Sam, the states of NV and CA are not going to help. So either local taxes go up or we need tourism and tourism marketing to drive the tax funds to transform this town.
Can’t have it both ways. If the casinos, LTVA, boats, hotels/motels, ski resorts stop marketing everyone who has a job can just pack up and leave the town to the wealthy, retirees and gov’t employees. Then everyone who needs a paycheck can complain about their new home town; whichj won’t be Tahoe.
Does anyone remember that the prices of services, retail,lodging, products are too damn high! Casino medium bets are higher than the valleys.They draw the 2 to 10 dollar bettors people in abundance down there ,they blew those kind of people away from coming here to the lake.
“GET IT”…..$.(.).$…
V
I venture down to the big blue ocean in the summer,they got some gorgeous Beaches down there, I spend more time there camping than here in Tahoe because so many damn regulation here, everywhere you look there’s green gates,boulders to “KEEP YOU OUT”.
I think the tourist have got the message.
I’VE SAID IT FOR DECADES, THAT A FEW NATIONAL HOLIDAYS, ARE HARD THE MAKE A LIVING HERE AT THE EPA ,PARKING IDIOTS, AGENCIES EMPIRE OF THE WEST, So.Tahoe.
Georgie, thank you! You understand what most don’t want to believe. Tahoe is beautiful, and we are different from most areas in California. Tahoe residents, businesses, etc., will not survive without the tourists. WE ARE A TOURIST BASED TOWN!
People come here for the outdoor activities, and later they go to the casinos for entertainment.
Look at how many commercial vacancies we have just along Hwy 50 alone, that is why Tahoe needs tourists. Every business in town is at threat without them, obviously local resident’s can’t help them survive; if we could we would not have all these problems!
Of course there are the brain dead idiots that have governed this town for the 35+ years I’ve been here and have suffered trying to create jobs and a decent living while they catered to the little cozy select few who control and believe that Tahoe is for them alone. With as anti-business they have been over the years hopefully they will start to suffer the same fate as the rest of us who are not part of the “good old boys &(girls) club”.
Lets get rid of all leaders who own real sizeable commercial real estate holdings (Cole, Lovell), live on retirement funds (Crawford), make money off of real estate deals (Greggo) and vote in everyday working folks who understand where our business comes from (tourism) and folks who understand that people primarially come here for the enviornment, scenery, recreation and then enhance their stay with the ample gaming, dining, skiing, etc. Move the council meetings to nights or weekends so these working folks can earn their livings, run their businesses and lead our city. We have some good business people and leaders in the town but most can’t afford to give up their jobs to serve and lead us.