Las Vegas Set to Move into High-Rolling Casinos
The building boom in Las Vegas, including new casinos, resorts and hotel and condominium high-rises is now catering to a richer clientele, with a host of high-end luxury properties and casinos planned for the next five years.
Plans include a total of more than 40,000 hotel rooms and condo units to be added to the city – a number that would cause investigations into overbuilding and closure of building approval in other cities.
Some in Vegas have been expressing concern about the over-hyped condo market, the casinos’ operators are strongly optimistic, and many analysts and investors are saying Las Vegas has sustained past boom times despite the doubts of sceptics, and the city is totally prepared to take such an influx.
The current trend in the Las Vegas casinos is to build huge upscale resorts while they sell out in record time, a phenomenon unknown in the hotel industry elsewhere. The newest casinos and resorts under development will carry such large price tickets that they will be out of reach for the majority of the regular middle-income visitors to the city. However investors and market developers are supremely confident that the loss of average-income tourists will be more than made up for by new higher-income visitors.
Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV reportedly commented that the changes are not an economic shift, but rather a change in marketing. The Vegas casinos are being marketed to a wealthier breed of customers, and there’s a large demand for it.
Las Vegas is stepping out of its past middle-of-the-road image in into ever more luxurious and architechturally appealing casinos and resorts, with the latest projects including some of the most expensive buildings in world history. The trend is set to continue into the future, with current high-end luxury casinos such as the Wynn and Venetian being upgraded.
Other casinos and resorts under development include MGM Mirage’s $7 billion CityCenter and Boyd Gaming Corp.’s $4 billion Echelon Place, which will feature boutique hotels in the style of Miami and Los Angeles.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will spend $82 million on advertising for the city this financial year, an astounding amount, more than the marketing budgets of other top destinations Florida, Hawaii and New York combined.
Casinos are now using point-of-sale monitoring systems that track and adjust everything from souvenir prices to slot payouts. The tracking methods are growing more and more sophisticated with spending patterns of repeat customers tracked and bonuses offered. Along with the casinos’ hotel management becoming more sophisticated, with operators able to track patterns and raise prices when demand is high.
The casinos are using an advances science to calculate ever aspect of the resort complexes; no detail is left to chance. Casinos now have an accurate picture of what patrons are willing to pay, and prices are adjusted accordingly.
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