N. Nevada tourism guru focuses on gear heads
By Chris Ciarlo, KTVN-TV
As the economy continues to recover, every state is fighting for tourism dollars.
Here, at home, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority is launching a new campaign it hopes will bring in the next wave of tourists called Northern Nevada Motor Madness.
“When I arrived in Reno, I was really delighted to see all the cool, special events we had all summer long,” said Chris Baum, CEO of the RSCVA. “What I noticed was a lot of those are what I call piston powered; motorcycle, car, airplane, even Jet Skis. When you put it all together, we really have about a dozen world class activities that appeal to the gear head.”
The idea is if there’s an audience for Hot August Nights and there’s an audience for off-road racing out at Mustang, why not cross-promote?
Baum said cross-promotion gives every event exposure and a boost in attendance.
He also said this series is all about repackaging Nevada to the rest of the nation and no longer focusing on just gaming.
“We will always have gaming here, it just can’t be the lead offer anymore. We have to take something else and put it out front as what Reno-Sparks and North Lake Tahoe are today. Fortunately, we have a lot to go with because unlike a lot of other destinations that might be a one trick pony, we’ve got incredible, natural surroundings.”
Sounds like the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority has come to its senses. With gambling available in virtually every state now, and on the internet, it is clearly no longer the unique draw that once drew tourists and gamblers year-round to Nevada in plentiful and predictable numbers.
I’m surprised they haven’t yet inserted the word “Tahoe” in the RSCVA moniker, like they cleverly did with the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Tahoe tourism officials should copyright that phrase, if not already too late.
Steve- They already have! Riding the Tahoe coat-tails! Take a look: http://www.visitrenotahoe.com/
I used to wonder why they used “Tahoe” so much in their Reno ads, but then I realized it’s all good. It brings attention on other ways people can get to Tahoe while highlighting the great things to do here. Nevada is spending money on ad campaigns and on improved highways that will get people to and from Lake Tahoe quicker and easier…win, win situation as I see it.
Steve & TT-Tahoe
This is a possible conversation from a couple of visitors after having flown into Reno Tahoe International Airport. The shuttle bus takes them to the casino where they have a room rented. Louie and Marge (L&M) go to the front desk to check in.
So L says: Where’s Lake Tahoe? Can we walk to there from here?
Desk Clerk (DC): Oh no you’ll have to take a bus to the casinos at Stateline and from there you can rent a car to see the lake. L replies, From one Casino in the desert to another one in the mountains?
DC; Thats correct sir, and you should be careful driving thru So. Shore, lots of road construction this year.
L says: So we just flew out here all the way from New Jersey, which has lots of casinos by the way, and now we have to go to more? And on top of that we ride a bus thru the desert for over an hour to get to the beautiful lake that was in the brochure?
DC: That’s right sir, welcome to the Reno-Tahoe area, and be careful where you park in So. Shore. They’re just starting to charge for parking to see the lake and it’s two bucks an hour.
L is getting a little angry and says:How can you call this airport and these smoke filled run down old casinos Reno-Tahoe when you’re over an hour away from Lake Tahoe.
By now M has had enough and says to L : Louie, lets get a drink and sit by the pool, we’ll see Tahoe some other time.
DC: Be careful outside today folks, we’ll be getting up to a 100 degrees plus today.
Louie mutters “Reno-Tahoe my a**”.
Take care, OLS
OLS, in the age of the internet do you really think someone spends thousands of dollars on a vacation without even doing a simple search on the destination?
@John: Oh yes. All the time.
You haven’t noticed all the visitors in caravans of minivans, driving aimlessly around Fallen Leaf and other parts of the lake, without a clue how to get to their destinations? ‘But my gps says I can drive from here straight to Echo Summit’. Really.
All of us ” Gear heads ” that live up here are happy Tahoe is embracing the collector and hot rod folks that spend millions when they attend HAN . Most people are fascinated with cars from the past and nostalgia is thriving everywhere. I spoke with a gentleman last week that is helping coordinate the early Ford V8 club’s Golden Jubelee event here on the south shore the week of June 16th. The host Hotels are Harrahs and Harveys. There are abour 400 cars registered and many are at the concourse level. That means just about perfect and quite valuable.
He said he tried to reach the Tahoe Chamber with no luck to spread the word. I myself heard of the event from friends, and called him. My first question was how come the V8 club had little information on their site about our area? I thought why not link to the LTVA and Tahoe websites to give these many hundreds of people something to look forward to while here?
The car folks are great visitors. Usually have a few bucks are fun loving , and just might come back if we treat their cars and them with respect and courtesy.
Phil Blowney,
This car event sounds great! Should bring in lots of people and lots of beautiful cars. Too bad it’s not being advertised so much but at least you’re getting the word out thru LTN.
This is the sort of thing So. Shore needs and more events like it. I’ll be going for sure!
OLS
Yes, Tahoe needs to get the gear heads in town, cars, bikes, boats, what ever and let people know they are here. There is also a Corvette show each year up here, glad the V8 Ford show is coming, this from a classic Chevy guy.
What could be the best car show to ever be held in Tahoe is coming up in less than a month??
If this is true someone should alert our Tahoe South people to get the word out. This is really pathetic.