John Went To The Interbike Convention In Vegas, But All I Got Was This T-Shirt

John reports from his recent trip to Las Vegas:

Hey Marc,

Ah, Las Vegas. It seems about the same as last year except there is a bit more desperation in the air. We stayed at the Riviera which, being one of the older casinos, seems to be on an even keel. However, just north of there is the Fontainebleau which stands unfinished as a striking, blue-windowed piece of early 21st century optimism. And then across the street from the Riviera was the old Westward Ho and to the south of that the Sands and then the Frontier. I say "was" because they are now all gone. Two years ago there was a half mile long vacant lot where they stood but last year a huge steel skeleton of a new multibillion dollar casino called the Echelon began to rise in their place. Today is sits unchanged from a year ago as another failed monument to excess. And farther south on the Strip one finds the new City Center, a behemoth hotel/casino which will add another 4800 hotel rooms to the strip when it opens soon.

Aside from all that, however, I would say that the crowds seem as big as ever. My aunt and uncle who live in the area tell me that the main problem is that LV visitors are not spending money as freely as they did in the past. That seems like a plausible explanation. I did try to see the Cirque du Soleil show "Love" at the Mirage but there were no tickets available for either night I was there. From what I'm told that is the most popular show on the Strip so I cannot say if those sellout crowds are indicative of what is happening at other shows.

The local news talked of 30,000 foreclosures and 21,000 personal bankruptcies last year in Las Vegas. How much of that is a result of the subprime mortgage fiasco and how much is a direct result of declining tourism is hard to say. Overall I would say Las Vegas seems about the same as ever from a tourist's point of view but I wonder what the effect of huge bankruptcies such as Fontainebleau and Echelon will be. Let me know what you think after next weekend.

Enjoy the Kylie show!

-John

It’s amazing – I passed through there three times this summer, but somehow the place didn’t leave much of an impression on me, at least so far. There is a Basic Vegas Holiday that goes like:

Leave hotel to go to casino
Lose a ton of money at the casino
Return to hotel from casino
*repeat*

The summer visits were more like the Basic Vegas Holiday.

Nevertheless this weekend is likely to be different. Sally is coming with me and that will change the dynamic. I’m worried that she’ll eschew the late hours more than I do, and that could be stressful if we stayed a long time, but we likely won’t be there long enough for the mismatch to become an issue. One thing I’ve always liked about Vegas was the tendency for every trip to be different from every other trip (excepting the tedious Basic Vegas Holiday, of course). So, we’ll see….