Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

But a bill proposed by Nevada Senator Harry Reid will use this city’s marketing style to promote the United States abroad. What used to happen only in Vegas will be happening in the entire nation soon.

The Travel Promotions Act proposes the use of the marketing program of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority (LVCVA) in promoting travel and tourism to the United States.

It allows the creation of a non-profit corporation that would design promotional programs to market the United States around the world as a tourist destination. The corporation will be a partnership between the government and the private sector.

"This is what the LVCVA has been doing for Las Vegas for decades, and I’m confident its success can be replicated at the national level to benefit all of us," Sen. Reid said in his statement. 

The senator co-sponsored the bill along with another Nevada Senator, John Ensign. The proposed legislation was introduced to the senate by North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan last May.

The LVCVA is one of the most successful public-private partnerships in the country. Since the 1950s, it has been its mission to "attract visitors by promoting Las Vegas as the world’s most desirable destination for leisure and business travel."

Unlike a typical convention and visitors’ bureau that is membership-based, the LVCVA is a quasi-governmental agency. It was established by a state law, is funded by a county room tax, and is governed by an autonomous Board of Directors.

While it is still a political subdivision of the State of Nevada, the LVCVA’s 14-member board includes six representatives from the private sector.

Two government representatives each from Clark County and the City of Las Vegas and one representative each from the cities of Henderson, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City and Mesquite compose the board. Private sector members, meanwhile, are nominated by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Nevada Resort Association.

Using this LVCVA model, the national corporation proposed by the Travel Promotions Act will devise campaigns to address perceptions that might limit travel to the United States. It is expected to maximize economic and diplomatic benefits of travel to the country.

The Act would create a 15-member board to develop plans and budgets that could range between $10 million and $100 million. Both Nevada Senators Reid and Ensign insist that the project "will not cost taxpayers a dime."

Funding of the corporation is to come from both private donations and a $10 user fee imposed on inbound international travelers who do not pay for a visa to enter the US.

The Travel Promotion Act is expected to "jump-start America ‘s struggling economy and create thousands of new jobs, attracting millions of additional international travelers to the United States," US Travel Association president Roger Dow had said in a recent statement.

The US Travel Association, the non-profit organization representing all components of the $770 billion travel industry in the country, also noted that unlike other developed nations, the United States does not promote tourism to attract visitors.

"If the US kept pace with trends in global overseas travel, it would have had an additional $137 billion in visitor spending, $22 billion in tax receipts and 229,000 jobs," it said. The association said a formal corporation handling travel promotion will shore in much needed revenues to the country.

But Sen. Reid said the Travel Promotions Act will benefit Nevada as well. "Of course as the number of tourists coming to the United States increases, so will the number of people who will visit Nevada," he said.

"We will get more benefits than any (other) state in the union," he added, in a statement issued last June 22.

The senator noted that more than more than 230,000 Nevada jobs depend on tourism. Since it has no state income tax, Nevada ’s budget relies heavily on revenues generated from the tourism industry.

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( Published on July 2, 2009 in Asian Journal Las Vegas p. A1 )