After the events of September 11, 2001, the tourism outlook for Reno-Sparks/ Lake Tahoe, as in every U. S. destination, has taken a dramatic turn. Prior to that date, the community was making great strides toward a new division of marketing efforts: the individual hotel-casino stakeholders were focusing their attention on Reno-Sparks/Lake Tahoe’s traditional West Coast markets, while the newly formed Regional Cooperative Marketing Committee — comprised of many of the area’s convention and visitor bureaus, the Airport Authority of Washoe County, regional hotel partners and the Nevada Commission on Tourism — was seeking to expand into new markets. Over the past few months, the marketing committee has taken the first steps to develop a regional advertising program and also conducted preliminary research on the potential effectiveness of the campaign in target markets.
But now, leading up to the ski season, the region has been forced to reassess its immediate strategies. The resumption of “normal” air service is expected to take months; Indian casinos have taken an aggressive marketing stance towards our destination; and security has tightened both at airports and throughout the country. The very natureof travel has changed. Because of this, the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority (RSCVA) has begun to proactively gather and refine pertinent information regarding hotel/motel occupancy and travel trends. The RSCVA, working with stakeholder partners, has proposed a short-term plan to transfer some of the regional marketing dollars into the Bay Area and Sacramento drive-in markets, and to further review opportunities in short-haul fly-in markets.
Overall, the community remains cautiously optimistic. Initial signs show the drive-in market has responded to the short-term strategy, and should continue to do so. Street Vibrations, the annual gathering of Harley Davidson motorcycle owners, brought over 98 percent occupancy to Reno-Sparks hotels. Weekend numbers since then have continued to be in line with historical data.
On the meeting, convention and tradeshow front, RSCVA President and CEO Jeff Beckelman has presented preliminary plans to the RSCVA board of directors for the construction of a downtown events center that would include a conversion of the National Bowling Stadium (NBS) into usable exhibition and meeting space. At present, the NBS is under-utilized, only in use 18 out of every 36 months.
A study conducted by Convention Sports & Leisure reported a gap in the Reno facilities market for groups that prefer a downtown facility and require between 40,000 and 80,000 gross square feet of prime contiguous exhibit space. In a stabilized year, a downtown events center could accommodate between 15 and 25 events within the above-identified target segment, the majority of which would be events new to this market, bringing additional income for existing stakeholder properties. The report also indicated that 93 percent of key event markets prefer to have the hotel and meeting facility under one roof; consequently, the new events center, rather than taking business away from existing facilities, would be available to handle demands for overflow meeting space.
The NBS/Events Center proposal, if adopted, could produce a cash-flow savings of up to $20 million for the RSCVA over 10 years and would allow the Reno Redevelopment Agency and the city of Reno to receive the money identified for the value of the property contributed to the original National Bowling Stadium. In a worst-case scenario, if room tax collection experienced a catastrophic drop and the NBS/Events Center booked little business, the RSCVA could still realize a cash-flow savings up to $6.5 million. Most importantly, the city of Reno and the region will have a facility that produces an economic impact 12 months of every year
