Behind the PokerFace.

"Gaming destination" may no longer be the best descriptor for sites that feature casinos. Take a look at the other types of attractions these sites are adding and promoting--and how they've addressed meetings issues raised by associations.

You know Vegas. You've done Reno. Tunica is new but is surely the same deal.

Or do you? Have you? Is it?

Destinations that in the past have been synonymous with gambling may surprise you if you give them a new look. Today they're more like poker-plus-plus-plus, offering many attractions and amenities outside of the casinos. In sync, brand-new sites are avoiding a narrow gaming identity.

So-called gaming destinations are not only going beyond gambling as they expand, they're developing more meetings-amenable features. Sites that traditionally concentrated on repeat business from individuals spending leisure dollars (and attempting to win back some) at casinos are now promoting themselves more aggressively as major meetings venues, too.

Why the shift from the famous gambling niche?

In Atlantic City's case, "even casinos recognize that [the] town cannot live by gambling alone," reported The Washington Post earlier this year. Staff writer Jackie Spinner noted that convention-goers and other groups not likely to indulge in round-the-clock card bets and slot machines are now being targeted for visits to Atlantic City. According to Spinner, this is a "huge shift in thinking for both casino executives and city leaders, who have come to realize that this famous old lady of resorts needs more than gambling."

This may be reflective of the reasons why other casino-clad sites are taking significant steps toward more convention business. Following are explanations and plans of several major gaming destinations.

In addition are comments from association executives. All of these executives comment from meetings experiences in Las Vegas only, but many insights appear to have application to other gaming sites. The executives view some steps being taken in Las Vegas as widening the door of meeting venue opportunities. Other steps are viewed as not enough to address concerns that weigh on meeting planners' minds. Then there's the practically 100-percent-satisfied customer: the association whose members love Las Vegas and grow fonder of the city as it evolves. The collection of comments can help you evaluate whether the changes in formerly gaming-centric environments can mean the chance for more productive, enjoyable, and cost-effective meetings for your association.

What they've got besides gambling

Naturally gambling is still a big draw at traditional sites, and casinos are as eager as ever for business. But visitors are now encouraged to choose from numerous other appealing options that are being heavily promoted.

"The strongest selling point for the Reno--Lake Tahoe region is the variety of wonderful outdoor experiences available," says Lynn Thompson, CEO of the Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, Nevada. Golf, skiing, hiking, fishing, and boating are all on his list. "Historically the destination has focused on gaming as the principal reason why people should visit here," Thompson says, but the sales strategy is changing due in good part to the Reno-Lake Tahoe area's desire to attract more business considered less likely to concentrate on gambling.

"We need to diversify the economic base of the destination," Thompson says. "With the proliferation of all forms of gaming throughout this country--including traditional casino, tribal, riverboat, and lottery--there really is a need for the Reno--Lake Tahoe market to expand its emphasis on attracting a much more stable and reliable part of the visitor industry--that means the meetings, conventions, and trade shows market."

Doris Phelps, executive director of sales at Reno's 1,000-room Atlantis Casino Resort echoes the city's need to capitalize on its nongaming assets. "Everyone involved in our regional hospitality industry is working extremely hard to promote a positive, updated image of Reno as a premier, four-star resort, recreation, and meetings destination."

Atlantic City's desire to diversify has shifted the convention and visitors authority's attention somewhat to the New Jersey shore location. "'What is available in your destination besides gaming?' is the question that comes up with the association market," says ACCVA Vice President of Convention Sales and Services Joe DiGirolamo. The responses include the beach, the famous boardwalk, championship golf courses, professional sports, entertainment, and dining experiences from gourmet restaurants to boardwalk fare.

Las Vegas, too, considers its gourmet offerings part of the new, nongaming glitz. Rob Powers, vice president of communications at the convention and visitors authority, admits that "it wasn't always the case, but we're now recognized as a full-service resort destination. Currently, 2 of the 19 Mobil five-star restaurants in the United States are in Las Vegas. Another way to look at how Las Vegas is changing is to look at the presence of the major lodging corporations that are here now that were not a few years ago: Hyatt is here, and Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton have announced plans to build. Companies like that, which cater to the association market, want to establish a presence.

Powers explains new marketing efforts--"what we want to do in terms of people's mind-sets." It's to take the person who in the past did not come to Las Vegas because he or she didn't want to gamble, and educate that person about the full Las Vegas experience.

Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Connecticut, set an objective several years ago to evolve beyond "the single-dimensional element that is gaming" into a "premiere meetings, entertainment, and gaming destination," according to David Casey, vice president of sales and marketing. So besides gaming there are notable dining options, live entertainment, shopping, and more in the Mohegan Sun complex of facilities, which includes a 1,200-room luxury hotel and more than 100,000 square feet of meeting and function space.

Roll the dice all you like in Puerto Rico, but you can bet that there's plenty other to do. The Puerto Rico Tourism Company promotes parks, beaches, galleries, museums, and sidewalk cafes. These alternatives to casinos plus a new convention center (under construction for a 2003 opening) are expected to broaden the island's tourism industry with increased business travel--the aim of PRTC, according to Executive Director Jose Corujo.

Not only broader, but bigger

These and other destinations are not only attempting to broaden the appeal of their meetings package, they're pumping up its size as well. Along with Puerto Rico's new convention center will come a new headquarters hotel; other hotel development projects were announced recently. Las Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City are all expanding in ways significant to the association market, as is Mohegan. Sun.

Tunica, Mississippi, is at this very moment turning itself into a meetings destination. "Over the past three years we've just put the pieces in place to be able to go after the association market," says Webster Franklin, executive director, Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau (TCVB). "As recently as 1992, Tunica County had 20 hotel rooms and zero meeting space. Today we have just under 6,100 hotel rooms with about 150,000 square feet of meeting space, and we've got 250 hotel rooms being constructed. Tunica did not really exist as a destination at all until 1992, with the opening of our first casino. We're still really an unknown commodity."

TCVB is trying to change all that with introductions to societies of association executives in Tunica's region. Says Franklin, "We're letting people know who and what we are"--and, as with the long-standing gaming destinations, the message from Tunica is that they're gaming and more.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast region was tagged the fastest-growing destination in the South, by percentage of room inventory growth, in 1999, by Smith Travel Research. According to Steve Richer, executive director of the convention and visitors bureau, the region "has always been interested in association business; the difference today is that we have more capacity to handle meetings, conventions, and trade shows than ever before. Our rapid expansion in hotel inventory and convention space is just now surpassing demand."

Up north, in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the Kewadin Casino, Hotel and Convention Center has plans to increase its grand ballroom by 50 percent. The added space should attract additional association business, which has been targeted since the convention center first opened in 1997, according to Detroit office Convention Sales Manager Marcia Morse.

Too much of a good thing?

With the evolving nature of gaming destinations, the nagging question is, Will broader and bigger translate into better in the eyes of association executives?

It sounds like Dawn Gill would go back to Las Vegas but would have mixed feelings about the expansion. Based on a mid-l990s meeting of 12,000 attendees, the Woodbridge, Virginia-based meetings consultant comments, "Vegas seems an ideal location for large meetings, because there is no shortage of sleeping rooms or function space. However," adds Gill, "using the convention center in addition to local hotels requires the use of shuttle buses, as the size of the hotels makes everything a long walk. I did find it to be somewhat taxing to go from one committee meeting to another because the hotels are so large."

Completely positive about Vegas's size is Shelley Martinek, who has been involved in planning meetings at the Austin, Texas-based Association of Progressive Rental Organizations (APRO) for 12 years. The education director and certified meeting professional reports, "Since we meet in Las Vegas every other year, I have seen the phenomenal growth. Now a variety of properties fit our meeting needs (1,000-1,500 attendees and more than 200 exhibit booths), and we can keep our meeting under one roof. As our meetings have grown, so has our choice of new properties in Las Vegas."

Robin Wiener relays similar sentiments. "I am excited about expansion in that it provides more choices and allows for potential expansion of our show," says the president of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Washington, D.C. ISRI holds its annual convention in Las Vegas every two or three years, with an average of 3,000 attendees and a trade show of between 70,000 and 105,000 square feet.

Wiener points out that her enthusiasm for Las Vegas applies only to large events. What wouldn't work well there, she believes, are "small meetings requiring a feeling of intimacy."

Additional issues

Attractive nuisance. In noting another wouldn't-work case, Wiener brings a different issue to the surface: the possibility of just too much to do. Gaming destinations are not the place, she says, for "meetings requiring few distractions so that members actually attend the scheduled meetings."

But, Wiener underscores, for conventions, gaming destinations work well. "Our members generally love going to Las Vegas. It offers them a wonderful array of restaurants and entertainment."

Martinek says that her casino-enjoying members do go to the meetings as well. "Since Las Vegas is a 24hour destination, members don't feel they have to rush out of a meeting early to be able to gamble, eat, etcetera. They know they have plenty of time for that after hours."

Costs. Wiener finds that Las Vegas "is not as cost competitive as it used to be. With demand rising and occupancy rates as high as they are in Las Vegas, the incentives are not as great as they used to he."

APRO's Martinek has a different take: "As a whole, our experiences with Las Vegas (and Reno) have been very favorable. Nevada seems to be able to offer more perks for our conventions, such as lower-priced rooms; more complimentary items, such as limo transfers; and sometimes even a free event. They seem very eager to please and to keep you coming hack."

Meeting space. With a traditional focus on the needs of tourists, gaming destinations have been passed over by associations for not providing enough function space to meet nontourism needs. Rob Powers acknowledges the problem and notes that Las Vegas has turned around that situation in the past couple of years. He reports that all new properties have "a significant amount of meeting space built into them."

Hotel room availability. Martinek brings up what she emphasizes is an isolated incident in a history of positive meetings experiences in Nevada. Still, the incident exemplifies the concern of association executives that the needs of tourists come before those of business customers. "The only disadvantage I've encountered," says Martinek, "is sometimes being placed after the 'high-rollers' in terms of suite availability. I once had our board president moved from his suite because an important 'gambling guest' needed it."

All destinations say that they are addressing room concerns--or already have--through expansion. Yet the issue of prioritizing guests still lingers. Here's what Joe DiGirolamo has to say: "Because Atlantic City is a resort, the convention center and a select number of properties will provide rooms on weekends [to meetings groups], but the blocks are a lot smaller, and the room rates are definitely higher. That's why we say that the opportunities for great value and entertainment for a major meeting is here Sunday through Thursday, rather than on the weekend. But groups that are smaller in size can enjoy Atlantic City on a weekend by using rooms at our key resort hotel properties for meetings and conventions."

Mississippi Gulf Coast's Richer says, our marketing plans continue to target hotel and citywide association meetings and conventions as a top priority, particularly in the Sunday-to-Thursday pattern, although [we] do provide adequate sleeping rooms on weekends to facilitate those prioritized pieces of business. We are glad to report that our key casino properties are full partners in providing weekend rooms.

David Casey explains where Mohegan Sun is on this issue: "Casino hotels typically, on the weekends, commit the vast majority of their guest rooms to casino guests. Consequently, individuals attending meetings aren't able to stay and enjoy a more leisurely pre- or post-meeting experience. Mohegan Sun is very different in that we're not a casino hotel-we're a meetings and entertainment destination. More than 50 percent of our guest room inventory is controlled by the sales and marketing area of the hotel and not by casino marketing. What that means to planners is that they have the opportunity for early arrivals and late departures; they can also have a meeting here over a weekend."

Kewadin holds its association customers in high regard, according to Marcia Morse--"provided they book early. The vast majority of larger association bookings are planned with enough lead time to ensure hotel and function space availability. Tourism-based bookings then fill in the remainder of the calendar."

Ever changing

Open a new property in Vegas, and everyone wants to try it out," says Martinek of her members. In considering the ongoing development there, she comments that it "has definitely affected our return to the city over and over."

The continual change in Las Vegas is characteristic at various levels in all gaming destinations--which might have a new label one day. All are banking on their ability to attract more association business through efforts to become known as premiere, full-service meetings destinations.

Gerry Romano, CAE, is senior editor and features manager of ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT.

Is Gambling a Dirty Word?

Destinations prefer gaming over gambling in describing casino fun, but the two words are defined by Webster as synonyms. That's probably why most people refer to gambling when talking cards and bets and slot machines--particularly when talking about the disapproval some people have for those activities.

How significant a concern to gaming/gambling sites is this disapproval by some?

Lynn Thompson, CEO of the Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, Nevada. comments, "Certainly, there's a small percentage of groups that prefer not to come to any gaming destination. That would be true for Reno or any other gaming destination where gaming is as concentrated as it is in our community. But certainly the universe of association business is large enough that we don't have to rely on those pieces of business."

Webster Franklin, executive director, Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau, Mississippi, believes that "the trend of hesitancy toward gaming markets--that trend of four or five years ago--is not there any longer when association executives are looking for a place to take their meetings. Most importantly they're looking for quality meeting space at the best value they can find--and in gaming destinations, that's most often the case."

SEEING BOTH SIDES. Shelley Martinek has brought the Austin, Texas-based Association of Progressive Rental Organizations to Las Vegas several times during the past 12 years. The education director acknowledges that while her members, for the most part, enjoy Vegas, "not everyone likes the atmosphere in gaming cities.

"Las Vegas has changed its image over the past several years from the sleazy side to more of a family atmosphere," Martinek observes. "Although I don't recommend bringing children to Las Vegas conventions, people are doing so because of the upgraded image that the city has been cultivating over the past several years. Plus, Vegas has outlawed the sidewalk hawkers passing out literature that might be objectionable to some."

FORCED GAMING? Something else was objectionable to a group that Cricket Park, CAE, worked with in Las Vegas one year. "Many members considered Las Vegas synonymous with 'sin city,'" says the president of C. B. Park and Associates, Columbus, Ohio. "Many of the group's feminist voices were outraged that the association would go to a place that 'exploits women.'"

Another problem Park had with meeting in Vegas was the layout that is common to gaming sites. "You had to walk through a casino to get to your room."

That's not the case at Kewadin or Mohegan Sun, their representatives assure. As Kewadin's Detroit office convention sales manager, Marcia Morse, puts it, "Our property is designed in such a way that attendees do not have to walk through the casino to access the convention center or the hotel, making the site friendly to those attendees who do not want to game."

The issue is one all destinations must consider, weighing the level of complaint about casino-lined facilities against the level of enthusiasm for that feature. Not to be lost in the noise is the fact that many people enjoy an abundance of gaming opportunities. As some associations report, many members are more inclined to register for conventions held at gaming sites than at other types of destinations simply because these people want to gamble.