It’s Thursday, which means a new Green Felt Journal in Vegas Seven. This week I tackle long-range planning, a topic I started thinking about after the euro’s decline two weeks ago:
Tourism is a fraught industry. There’s always something that can keep visitors away—from health scares to economic malaise—out of the control of managers trying to operate resorts. Trying to adjust to meet new challenges can frustrate even the best-prepared Las Vegas executive.
Take, for example, the value of the euro. Since 2003, the dollar has been relatively weak against the euro. This is bad news if you’ve taken a European vacation; your dollars don’t go very far. But for American cities that host European travelers, it’s been a bonanza. Western Europeans have flooded Las Vegas in recent years, spending freely, even when domestic visitation has dropped.
via Many numbers help paint European tourism picture | Vegas Seven.
There is really an amazing amount of forecasting that goes on up and down the Strip. And it’s interesting to be reminded that events far away have very real impacts here in Las Vegas.