The document provides an internal and external analysis of Las Vegas as a tourism destination. It identifies opportunities to increase revenue by targeting the Canadian market through new contracts with businesses, governments, and institutions. The central problem is declining tourism revenue due to the recession. The objective is to boost hotel room occupancy and short-term profits by creating marketing strategies focused on the Canadian market as a close, high-potential source of visitors.

1. -259246-413468Sultan Alotaibi2010Las Vegas <br />Executive Summary <br />LVCVA aims to provide the best and luxurious entertainment products and services to targeted business environments in North America and the rest of the world. This plan seeks to generate a significant increase in company sales and profits from creating more contracts with businesses from Canada in a perspective of B2B customers, government alliance, government services, boarding the service-line, compared to the preceding year. <br />The highlights of this plan are the targeted sales-revenue from managing the business relationship with other business clients. These targets are attainable through enhancing the relationship with our current clients and our market reach in the future, expanding business relationship with other business clients, teaming-up with leisure providers, and partnering with reputable international and regional suppliers and services firms to reduce competition, improve pricing, and reduce risks.<br />Las Vegas is counted to be a complete city for any vacation, convention, and business trip. The city has 150000 rooms, 250000 resort industry employees, the resorts can host up to 19000 meetings, convention and incentive programs annually, ranging in size from 10 to over 100,000 attendees. Las Vegas has more than 10.5 million sq ft of exhibit space CITATION Ros09 \l 4105 (Ralenkotter, 2009). <br />This business plan was created on the basis of our market research. Data conclude the size and growth of the business market segments, business customer needs, perception, and buying behavior of each segment. We feel that it is able to fill the hole in lacking to reach the Canadian market with larger portion than that LVCVA have for now.<br />Situation Analysis<br />Internal Analysis (Strengths and Weaknesses)<br />Strengths:<br />150,000 Hotel rooms<br />10.5 Million square feet of meeting and exhibit space citywide<br />Huge investment, building, facilities, and hotels<br />A lot of entertainment and shows in the city (some are free)<br />35 Million visitor (2002) and 30 Million each year<br />900 Daily flight from the city to other destinations<br />Weaknesses:<br />Not too much advertising for different ethnicity <br />Hot whether <br />Raise in crime <br />Gaming industry is losing more revenue<br />Mass investment in the city<br />Pollution (Air, Sound, and light) ( Las Vegas Encounter Book)<br /> External Environmental Analysis as applied to Las Vegas:<br />Opportunities<br />Further expansion into Canada, Middle East, and Asia <br />Adding more infrastructure and hotels <br />Adding more flights from all over the world <br />Great reputation and very famous around the world<br />Threats<br />Continued pressure from Dubai who is able to offer tourist with great packages and more fun and much closer to Asia, Africa, And Europe <br />The third consecutive fiscal year that major sources of revenue are significantly below pre-recessionary levels.<br />Delay various capital projects to future timeframes CITATION Ros09 \l 4105 (Ralenkotter, 2009)<br />Terrorism and security issues.<br />Recession period expended (double recession)<br />Assumptions<br />Forming new contracts with the government, business, and institute of Canada will generate more visitors; while creating a more promotional advertising and great deals in these contracts to the US and especially to Las Vegas. <br />This would represent an enhancement to the business of Las Vegas and generate more profit to the city by bringing more costumers from a near destination which is Canada. The room tax revenue consist of 75% of the General fund revenues of Las Vegas and 22% from the use of the other facilities (Figure A); this mean that the city main budget is formed from the visitors and tourist; therefore, the most valuable assumption is to increase the number of visitors while trying to reduce expenses of the operation and advertisement that cost the city more than 120 million dollars a year (Figure B) which consist of more than 62% if the General fund expenditure CITATION Bre10 \l 4105 (Brenda & Rana, 2010).<br />Central Problem<br />A new business or an old business they all run under problems, the objective of a SWOT analysis is to find out about these problems and tackle it in the first spot. Las Vegas is spending million in its some free shows, Hotels are many, and infrastructure for tourist is huge; to keep running such great touristic city, business owners need to have more visitors and generate more profit. Having a lack of tourists is a challenge, and the situation is going from bad to worse. The LVCVA need to focus on its market strategy and vision the market of Canada to create a good marketing segmentation that will help Las Vegas to gain more business from Canada. In the actual market Canadian is the solution for attracting more visitors to the city since it’s a very close place and have many business shared between the two countries.<br />Evaluative Criteria<br />Criteria Rank/Weight Profits.35Return on investment .30Customer satisfaction.25Market share.10<br />Objective <br />Due to the recession period that the economy knows, and because people tend to visit only cheap places that offers average hotel standards and room facilities, the progress and the total profit of Las Vegas businesses are declining every day. On the other hand, Las Vegas had many expenses that accrue on the city bills and its businesses; for instance, for every 1,000 new rooms, Las Vegas needs to attract 200,000 more visitors annually to maintain current hotel occupancy rates CITATION Bre10 \l 4105 (Brenda & Rana, 2010); it is very bright to think about boosting the room occupancy of the hotels and its facilities by creating short term contract with agencies, institutes, and the government of Canada. There are many facts that makes Canada a great opportunity to US market; for instance, there are many businesses between the two countries where many meeting and convention ran either in Canada or other cities of US but not Las Vegas, the location of the Canadian market and its potential visitors are very close with great deals of flights that is considered to be very cheap, the other facts are language, games, and even lifestyle behaviors. Therefore, thinking about a short term profit is a very wise strategy to increase the room occupancy and help Las Vegas to lead the market of tourism in the recession period. Company geographic growth is also another criterion to be augmented because, like promotion, it is an important factor when trying to get individuals outside of your country to plan vacations, meetings, conventions, etc. If the LVCVA planned to work on expanding the geographic growth, you can get your message and ideas out to people beyond your company limits. In this case, Canada would be the main target and it must be an objective to expand the geographical growth to reach out and meet the needs of people living in this location.<br />Customer Satisfaction is a factor in evaluation criteria; because the target market wants to see how their needs would be satisfied when going to Las Vegas. If they feel that their experience in Las Vegas will be unwanted and not enjoyable then they will not be motivated to visit the city. By ensuring the excellent customer satisfaction, in promotional strategies and broad messages, the perception of the campaign can take a greater effect on the target, which in turn will help the final decision of this individual.<br />Lastly, Image is a factor in the evaluation criteria, because it shows how a customer’s experience will be before they take the trip and this is due to the image of the place the person will visit. If you put a bad image of Las Vegas in the consumers head, then they will not want to visit the city. By utilizing the 3 criteria above, an image of Las Vegas will be formed that will impress the target audience. By extending this image with a bit more information, LVCVA can push the target audience to a conclusion that Las Vegas would be the perfect getaway or place to host certain events in the most efficient way needed and recommended..<br />Alternatives<br />Government Services;<br />Target Market: Federal governments, such as customs, defence, education, health, human services, postal, public safety, public transportation and revenue agencies.<br />Positioning statement: The aim for contracting with the federal government is to provide them with many solutions for their meeting and conventions, Las Vegas, got the best hotels and the large ones; therefore can host any big meeting and also can accommodate any large number of people. The issue that face most of government booking in hotels is its large number, mostly these booking will be splits into two or three hotels in Canada; whereas making such booking in Las Vegas can be only in one hotel for instance the MGM Grand contain 5000 rooms and considered to be the largest hotel crown in the world. Las Vegas can accommodate meeting and convention perfectly and when the invitees are done with their meeting they can enjoy sometimes in Las Vegas with the endless shows and stars around the city. It is mentioned in the LVCVA annual report that: “focus on advertising campaigns designed to generate immediate and spontaneous visitation for leisure activities. And concentrate on meeting and convention industry, emphasizing the value of Las Vegas as a destination to conduct serious business, as well as have fun.” CITATION Ros09 \l 1033 (Ralenkotter, 2009)<br />The marketing Mix<br />Product: Big hotels and reliable/responsive services from qualified staff and large entertainment facilities across the city. <br />Promotion: Las Vegas can utilise Government Alliance relationship relevant to the business market and can provide a great satisfaction throughout their qualified and experienced members. <br />Distribution: the big market and huge facilities that Las Vegas have can facilitate the commend of booking and needs of the government of Canada.<br />Price: the Las Vegas community LVCVA can provide special prices, great packages, and deals to the government and its affiliates.<br />Advantages: there will be mutual benefits since the government of Canada will have special prices and packages, and Las Vegas will benefit from a close market and great spending business that have a mass purchase.<br />Disadvantages: difficult to negotiate with most of the government since they already had a contract with other businesses, risky <br />Strategic Alliance <br />Business Mission <br />LVCVA can create and make strategic alliances with many hotels and entertainment facilities in Canada that will provide the visitors and tourist the abilities to have an included stay at the Las Vegas hotels with good rates (for example: book 5 days, three in Ottawa and 2 in Las Vegas). They can more focus on hosting convention; for instance, Angelo Varrone, CEO of the digital Signage Expo said “When our Show moved to Las Vegas in 2008, attendance jumped 75 percent….. You can’t get a better ROI justification than that.” <br />Target Market <br />LVCVA can target most tourists that enter Canada and most of them they are looking to Visit US and Las Vegas as main target for them.<br />Positioning Statement<br />Las Vegas is known by its huge infrastructure of hotels, entertainment, easy transportation, and facilities. They can provide the best service with qualified and experienced people; their packages with hotels in Canada may increase the visitors to both places and create a good flow of guests. On the other hand, guest can benefit from visiting two different places and enjoy the amazing shows and entertainments in the city. <br />The aim of this alternative is to create good strategic alliance with hotels from Canada and give good packages and low rate charges to these guests. LVCVA can look for the best and most known hotels in Canada to keep its strong image and benefit from those guests that they will be a more paying and spending people. In one of the flyers that is marketed in the LVCVA website It’s stated that ““What’s great about the trade missions is the LVCVA sets up all the meetings and then allows you to<br />engage with these contacts about what is specific to your marketplace,” says Tom Cindric, World<br />of Concrete’s show director. “They facilitate everything – transportation, housing and meetings. It’s<br />almost too good to be true. We went to Brazil, India and Eastern Europe with the LVCVA, and we had<br />good results from each trip.” CITATION Chr10 \l 1033 (Meyer, 2010). This means that LVCVA is looking to make it easier for customers and enhance the relationship in between. <br />Since LVCVA will be starting up strategic alliance with stronger and better known Hotels, it is going to help them break into market faster and secure, it will be less costly financing than would otherwise have been available to them.

2. Also it is going to help LVCVA gain more experience as far as marketing is concerned. By having strategic alliance with these Hotels, it is going to strengthen them more as they will be gaining more experience.4Ps<br />PRODUCTSince the main target are the ones who will be already staying in a hotel in Canada LVCVA will provide special services to those guests and they will included flight transportation if needed that will be included in their package that is considered to be affordable by them.<br />PLACEVisitors will have the pleasure to stay and experience two places and experience two different entertainments.<br />PROMOTIONPromotion of these packages can be included in the hotels’ websites from Canada and also in different booking agencies around the country.<br />PRICEPrice is going to be LVCVA’ most competitive weapon they can provide a 35% discount for all the bookings coming from the Hotels in Canada.<br />ADVANTAGES<br />Gain experience, hence more profit.

3. Raise hopes that the benefit will be greater than those of individual efforts, hence confidence.

4. The price as I have already mentioned above is the most competitive weapon for LVCVA, so surely this is going to make guests prefer them and this will help to create profit.DISADVANTAGES<br />There might be lack of cooperation between LVCVA and other Hotels.

5. Lack of trust.

6. All businesses want to make profit, so by wanting money, the strategic alliance might create selfishness among them, hence lack of cooperation and misunderstandings.Broad the service line<br />Alternative: Broad the service line, increase outsourcing the production of lower end merchandise from China, Thailand, Malaysia, etc. Decrease the input cost; therefore, decreasing the prices of its hotel rooms and shows around the city.<br />Target market: Tourist and visitors from around the world with cheap rate and packages.<br />Positioning Statement: LVCVA will purchase more productions from China that will cost them less than what they are paying for a luxury items and furniture, and look for cheaper services as many companies had contracted with calling centers from abroad US to cheaper their expenses, LVCVA can contract with many companies that will charges less than a normal contractors in the US.<br />LVCVA can target and look for customers in the countries that will contract with for handling their services, for instance, there are many companies that handles hotel booking, flights, and touristic consultancy services In Dubai that can be very cheap for the running of Las Vegas services, meanwhile, Dubai got lot off tourist that can be targeted to visit Las Vegas.<br />Market Mix: <br />Product: LVCVA will purchase productions from China and use services from India, UAE for a cheap rate while it can deliver its massage as a touristic place and target more people.<br />Price: providing competitive prices to wide range of guests around the world, especially Canada.<br />Promotion: LVCVA can use its marketing strategy to target new places in Canada and other countries that have her agent working in it. Basically, LVCVA can use website advertisement with multiple languages and TV advertisement in these countries that it has targeted.<br />Place: Services can be provided for all the guests in Las Vegas while using qualified agencies around the world with cheaper rates.<br />Advantages: Decrease the input cost<br />Disadvantages: long distance cause communication inefficiency and may decrease guest satisfaction.<br />Status Quo<br />The easiest alternative would be the status quo alternative which is to leave things as they are. Target markets would stay the same, marketing strategies would stay the same and this would not allow very much opportunity to attract new customers. Las Vegas is a city that offers gambling, high quality entertainment and luxury hotels for middle aged men and bachelor parties. Unlike any other American city, Las Vegas has over 150,000 hotel rooms and 30 million visitors every year.<br />Market to Canadian Customers<br />Canada is already Las Vegas’ leading source of international travelers; the LVCVA canvassed Toronto’s Canadian Meeting & Incentive Travel Symposium & Trade Show to persuade convention operators to host their future productions in Las Vegas. Representatives of the LVCVA also met with private convention and leisure travel planners attended events in Montreal and Vancouver to promote their cause. <br /> Although the LVCVA already has a marketing campaign and advertisements in Canada, they will need to segment the Canadian market itself and target the provinces themselves with individualized approaches. For example French advertisements could be broadcasted in Quebec and parts of New Brunswick and Ontario, or personalized campaigns for the Northern provinces due to difference in lifestyles. Las Vegas is a city that provides luxurious and exciting vacations for Canadian visitors who need to gamble and have fun. Unlike any Canadian cities Las Vegas has over 1700 casinos and almost 200,000 slot machines<br />Research for this can be lengthy and expensive and once this is done creating and elaborating the marketing plan according to the research can also be long and costly. Other costs will include advertising costs for commercials and flights and stays for representatives of the LVCVA. <br />Regular Guest’s enhancement<br />Instead of attracting new customers that will cost more money and effort and consuming time, LVCVA can concentrate on attracting more of its past and current visitors, they are considered to be as an inexpensive way to future customers Seventeen percent (17%) of 2009 visitors indicated they were first time visitors to Las Vegas as per GLS Research for the calendar year of 2009 CITATION GLS09 \l 1033 (GLS Research, 2009) this make almost 83% are revisiting the city for the second time or more than (Figure C). The LVCVA could focus their marketing on cities that have a high amount of flights going to Las Vegas to find where their customer’s come from. Marketing campaigns could be targeted to the areas to specifically attract past customers to return to Las Vegas. This would involve sending Email coupons, rebates, contests and information on future shows and events and running commercials and billboard advertisements reminding visitors of Las Vegas, LVCVA can also create a portal website specified for its visitors where they can share their pictures and adventures, this would increase the awareness of Las Vegas and share the amazing moment of new customers.<br />Marketing campaigns within the city of Las Vegas itself could be a way to attract past and current visitor this can be for staff working around the facilities by giving them a staff rate special days to have fan (the days that the cities does not have much visitors<br />Las Vegas is a city that offers great attractions with lots of benefits for visitors of any age that are looking for a great affordable trip. Unlike other cities hotels, events and restaurants are constantly doing giveaways, contests, giving coupons or rebates and having draws to make every trip more unique and affordable. The costs involved would include printing costs for coupons, some loss of profit when coupons are used and the cost of advertising in other cities. Online coupons and rebates are not expensive to send, but acquiring or making mailing lists can be long and costly. <br />Segmentation of the market<br />After focusing so long on the marketing campaign “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”, an alternative could be to focus on the marketing on different aspects of Las Vegas than gambling and partying, the LVCVA can expand its targeting to new markets based on their age group like:<br />Children and Families

7. Couples, or Married Couples

8. StudentsThese three markets could be targeted with television commercials, radio ads and even social media. With the growing increase in social media families interests or married couple’s interests could be targeted directly by promoting different Las Vegas attractions on diverse websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The campaigns could be things like a complete Facebook page dedicated to attractions for married couples in Las Vegas or a YouTube page showing how fun and exciting some of the events and shows for children are like in Las Vegas. It would probably be a better approach to target the elderly with traditional media (television, newspaper, billboards) rather than using the internet due to the fact the older generations are not as familiar with the internet.<br />Las Vegas is a wonderful city that offers a variety of exciting activities ranging from amazing shows like “The Cirque du Soleil” or the Liberace Museum or even the Pinball Hall of Fame which are sure to please to the oldest and youngest members of the family who are looking for fun family activities. Unlike other American cities, our attractions are for all ages and for all types ages and the whole family will find something they love in Las Vegas.<br /> The costs of social media are relatively expensive since making the accounts and posting on these websites is free, but this would require paying a dedicated marketing team and some research costs would be involved. When targeting the elderly costs would include advertising costs for the various ads, and research and development costs into making these ads.<br />LVCVA can also target more students in its marketing plan, there are almost 150 000 students enter USA and 130000 enter Canada each year, they are all coming from different parts of the world. Attracting these market can be an advertising itself since one student study with other students that they are very active in the social media. Attracting one means that he will take care of all the advertising by posting his amazing adventure and pictures that will be a stimulus to other student mate and the message can reach all over the world.<br />Analysis of Alternatives<br />CriteriaWeighted ValueAlt. #1(Status Quo)Alt. #2(Broad the service line )Alt. #3(Strategic Alliance)Alt. #4(Government Services )Short-term Profits.35.35(2)=0.70.35(7)=2.45.35(9)=3.15.35(9)=3.15ROI.30.30(2)=0.60.30(7)=2.10.30(5)=1.50.30(8)=2.40Image.25.25(7)=1.25.25(7)=1.75.25(6)=1.50.25(7)=1.75Ease of Implementation.10.10(9)=0.90.10(5)=.50.10(4)=0.40.10(6)=0.601.03.456.806.557.90<br />Decision and Justification<br />How signing new contracts with government, institute, and hotels will fit the organization’s internal and external environment <br />External<br />The limitation of targeting in the LVCVA marketing plan will be covered by creating new contracts from business, institute and government in opposite their members will have an easy and cheap packages they can chose from, check their special inquiries, and inquire for additional assistance.<br />These members will have special card that will offer them with different discounts and special services from the LVCVA. They can also book trough special agent and track their reservation trough LVCVA website<br />Internal<br />LVCVA is spending more than 86.5 Millions in its advertising and 39.5 Million in its operations, it is clearly that they want to attract more business and enhance their room occupancy CITATION Bre10 \l 4105 (Brenda & Rana, 2010). Using its spending to cover new services from other cheap agencies will decrease its total cost and increase the LVCVA profit. On the other hand, LVCVA can multiply its staff to cover wide range of ethnicity that they are able to speak different languages, also they can implement more online services that can be ran with different languages.<br />Assumption <br />The entrance to much more business in Canada will be a good asset to LVCVA; it is considered to be a great idea to enhance its profitability and decrease its expanses in a near destination. The recession period force many companies to not think about any expending and focus on altering the internal weaknesses to strength them and benefit from what the organization have rather than acquire it from other sources since it will have to spend more money to get such services. in the case of LVCVA they have to think about lowering the city cost by removing and postponing shows that does not run well in the city. Giving staff long vacation and even promote for the them the facilities with special rate.<br />Implementation <br />As identified in the decision and justification LVCVA’s marketing strategy is to create and sign more contracts with the government, institutes and hotels to expand B2B business and build a long-term relationship with business clients. The statements identified below clearly describe the step-by-step process to successfully implement the marketing mix. <br />Marketing Research: Primary and secondary research is required to identify new trends in the business market’s buying behavior. Primary research will include survey such as executive interviews or focus group survey. We can also use secondary data like hiring a consultant company to gather data and collect data from internet, business magazines that are related to business and government purchasing behavior in Canada. <br />Product/Service changes: Will build on the already existing strengths of strong market share and employee working with passion. For our new marketing mix, we will add special packages for business clients; service will be more specific for our target market.<br />Pricing strategy: To remain competitive in the tourist industry, we will focus on negotiating low costs with our suppliers which will reduce our current pricing position in the new business market. Promotional discount strategy will be developed for the business market.<br /> Communications plan: Hire hi-tech engineer build up feedback stage for business customers. The communications mix could include Face book, twitter, business blogging, or executive journals.<br />Distribution plan: create new packages and enhance the relationship with more business and current visitors in the city<br />First Quarter Implementation Plan:<br />StepsWhat?Who?When?Why?Where?1Commence research the different types of customers such as government institutions, private businesses, etc and then analysis what is their needs. CIO & Consultant companyWeek 1-4.Jan4-Jan29Specify the needs of our customers’ to maximizing the effectivenessLVCVA palnsLVCVA2Analysis our competitors’ services in regards to their strengths and weaknesses.Consultant companyWeek 1-4.Jan4-Jan29Position our Services Maximizing the strength of our Image and servicesConsulted company3Contract with the government, hotels, and institutes .LVCVA contract managers Week 5-12.Feb1-Mar26Implement our B2B contractsLVCVA<br /> <br />Second Quarter Implementation Plan: Finalizing contracts with agencies, institutes, hotels and start collaborating with them about how to achieve their employees and guests satisfaction.<br />Third Quarter Implementation Plan: starting with the first group of visitors from each contract, provide a personal services, and increase guest satisfaction, while promoting more activities of the city and conducting more surveys if needed.<br />Fourth Quarter Implementation Plan: keep doing what has been done in the third quarter, additionally, summarizes data that have been collected during the year and prepare the fiscal report and propose the plan for the next year. Create new implementation while visioning the world economy progress and look for more opportunities to boost the Las Vegas profit. <br />Appendix/Appendices<br />Figure A<br />Figure B<br />Figure C<br />Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Brenda, S., & Rana, D. L. (2010). Anual Budget Fiscal Year 2010/2011. Las Vigas: Las Vigas Convention and Visitors authority.GLS Research. (2009). Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study. Las Vegas, San Fransisco: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authoority .Hellen, R. (2001). Managing for Excellence. London: Dorling Kindersly Limited.Meyer, C. (2010). King Of Convention. Vegas Means Business , 4.Patricia, M. J. (2002). e-Operation Management. New York: AMACOM.Ralenkotter, R. (2009). Las Vegas Convention Center 50 Years. Las Vegas: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors authority .Rodger Constandse. (2007). Time Management . Retrieved June 07, 2010, from Timethoughts: http://www.timethoughts.com/time-management.htmVegas Means Business. (2010, 09 1). Business in Vegas. Retrieved 11 19, 2010, from Las Vegas Means Business : www.vegasmeasbusiness.com<br />`<br />