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Travel Decline Continues in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS –- The idea reflects the fear that many Americans have of air travel and illustrates the challenge Las Vegas faces in persuading people to fly to the desert city in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 jetliner attacks.

A top Atlantic City casino industry boss is considering whether to charter a National Airlines flight to Las Vegas for as many as 100 of his colleagues to attend an industry trade show in early October.

They are leery about booking flights carrying people they don't know after the suicide flights in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Last week, there were repeated instances of men with Middle Eastern appearances being asked to leave domestic flights because passengers and crew were uncomfortable with them being on commercial jets.

The Atlantic City casino bosses are apparently not alone in their worries, but they do earn their living from an industry that's largely dependent on the confidence of tourists and conventioneers who travel by air to Las Vegas.

"The message that is being sent out is don't get on a plane unless it's essentially private, and that's not a good message," said one Las Vegas casino industry marketer who requested anonymity.

An estimated 46 percent of the 250,000 visitors in Las Vegas on any given day arrive through McCarran International Airport, where officials say business is returning to normal, with 90 percent of the average number of flights landing on Friday and Saturday.

What's unclear is how many people were onboard those planes. The airport releases monthly totals for passenger counts but not daily figures.

Overall, an estimated 73 percent of the city's nearly 125,000 rooms were expected to be occupied this past weekend in a town accustomed to weekend occupancy rates of nearly 100 percent and 250,000 visitors.

That would mean nearly 67,500 fewer visitors in a city that needs hotel occupancy rates of 65 percent to 75 percent for hotel-casinos to break even on daily operating costs.

That's fewer people gambling in a city where the average gambler drops $665 on slots and casino tables during a five-day visit.

That's fewer people eating, drinking and attending shows in a city where the average person spends $711 on nongambling activities during a stay.

This past weekend's results will be available today or Tuesday, and they are expected to show a slight improvement from last weekend's occupancy figure, which hovered between 60 percent and 65 percent.

The occupancy rate for the MGM Grand was close to 80 percent, while MGM Mirage's other Strip megaresorts, including Bellagio and The Mirage, saw occupancy rates of 65 percent to 70 percent. Nightly room rates were about half their average.

MGM Mirage, Park Place Entertainment and Mandalay Resort Group control two of every three Strip hotel rooms, and two of every five citywide.

"It is true that by all indications business did pick up this weekend, and that's an encouraging number," Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokesman Rob Powers said Sunday.

But casino industry observers say no one's certain when the city's tourism business will return to pre-attack levels.

"How long will this last? How deep will this cut? I don't know," said the anonymous marketer, who doesn't want to irritate his colleagues by speaking publicly about the issue. "Anyone who pretends to is just faking it because it's without precedent."

In fact, those MGM Mirage occupancy rates are expected to drop to as low as 50 percent between today and Thursday.

Meantime, layoffs continue in the Las Vegas area, which has an estimated 700,000 jobs, one third of which are in the casino industry.

Dealers, cocktail waitresses, baggage handlers, restaurant workers have lost their jobs or face reduced work schedules for an unknown period.

Mid-level managers are leaving work emotionally drained after telling employees that they've been let go for an unknown length of time.

On Friday, 150 Stardust workers learned they were out of work.

At least two dozen waitresses at the MGM Grand learned this past weekend that they weren't technically laid off, but will not be called in for work until further notice.

"We all hope to be able to operate at full capacity 365 days a year, and in (this) environment those decisions are perfectly reasonable," MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said of the cuts.

The newly laid off workers join 500 former Aladdin workers, 250 at Paris-Bally's, several hundred at the Flamingo, and an unannounced total at Mandalay Resort Group megaresorts.

Citywide totals are hard to tally, with casino industry bosses either refusing to discuss the numbers or saying they haven't tallied the job cuts made by front-line managers.

The newly unemployed are eligible for state benefits, but weekly unemployment checks of about $250 are far less than the $800 to $1,000 some have grown accustomed to earning.

"It's just a shame. All of us have been here since day one," a former MGM Grand cocktail waitress said of the 8-year-old megaresort. She and her husband, who just lost his job at a competing casino, have a $1,500 monthly mortgage payment and regular car payments of $1,000.

"How could upper management do this?" she said, withholding her name to avoid workplace retribution. "It's appalling they couldn't put money in a special account for something like this and say, 'We'll take care of our people.' "

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