The September 11th attack
Layoffs persist as Vegas coaxes visitors back
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Visitors are slowly returning to the Las Vegas Strip thanks to slashed hotel room rates and more air travel, but casino giants continue to lay off workers and place multimillion-dollar construction projects on hold.
With 75 percent of the city's nearly 125,000 rooms filled over the weekend, hotel occupancy rates were up 8 percentage points over the previous weekend, according to figures released yesterday by the Las Vegas Visitor and Convention Authority.
"We expect our visitor numbers to continue to increase as time goes on," said Rossi Ralenkotter, visitor authority vice president of marketing.
Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the average hotel occupancy rate nationwide was 64 percent, the authority said, though Las Vegas was more accustomed to about 95 percent.
McCarran International Airport is running at 93 percent of its normal daily flight schedule.
Las Vegas-based National Airlines has instituted a "Get America Flying" program for the next five Tuesdays that offers one-way fares to Las Vegas for $1 when a return fare is purchased from $24 to $99. And 13 major Las Vegas hotels are offering a free night stay with a National boarding pass.
"The one simple objective is to get America flying again," said National president Michael Conway.
A reduction of airline passengers means a rise in empty hotel rooms, which has resulted in temporary restaurant closures and cutbacks in show schedules, shopping mall hours and employees.
The Strip's three largest operators — MGM Mirage, Park Place Entertainment and Mandalay Resort Group — have announced layoffs at their Strip properties in the past week, as have numerous independent properties including local casino giant Station Casinos. The total number of layoffs is estimated in the thousands.
MGM Mirage, the largest owner of Las Vegas Strip resorts, has laid off about 3,000 employees — or about 10 percent of the company's work force — since the attacks, said Alan Feldman, company spokesman.
Occupancy throughout the company's seven Strip hotel-casinos this week is down 30 percent, but business is expected to pick up again this weekend thanks, in part, to record low room rates, many of which have been cut in half.
"We do see a little progress each day, but because we have such high levels of occupancy normally — 98.6 percent every day — even if we get back to 80 percent, we're still 20 percent below normal," Feldman said.
Five more properties — the Rio, Harrah's Las Vegas, the New Frontier, the Stardust, and the Tropicana — said they have been forced by the slowdown to cut their work forces.
Harrah's Entertainment Inc. announced 160 jobs were cut between the Rio and Harrah's Las Vegas, as several restaurants were temporarily closed.
"We're hoping to bring them (the laid-off workers) back once business improves," Harrah's spokesman Gary Thompson said. "We don't anticipate at this point there will be any additional layoffs if trends continue."
The New Frontier, which employed roughly 900, cut its work force by 20 percent Monday, while Stardust cut 150 positions Friday.
The Tropicana declined to provide numbers, but the hotel-casino cut employee hours, and most employees are now working four-day weeks instead of five.
As the city continues to feel the pinch of a nationwide slowdown in tourism, The Venetian and Hilton Hotels Corp. have joined Caesar's Palace and Mandalay Bay in postponing construction projects.
While it will finish its new baccarat pit and the Guggenheim-Hermitage museums set to open next week, The Venetian will halt construction on its $200 million, 1,000-room hotel tower, company officials said yesterday.
Hilton Hotels Corp., suffering from the slowdown at its hotels across the country, temporarily has halted construction of a 33-story timeshare complex on the north end of the Strip.
Hilton broke ground on the $111 million project in June, and had hoped to open the first phase of 350 units in late 2002. But that opening will now be pushed back at least six months, Hilton said.
Park Place has suspended the development of a $475 million, 900-room hotel tower at Caesar's Palace, while Mandalay is delaying the addition of a 1.8 million-square-foot, $235 million convention center at Mandalay Bay.
Despite the visitor slowdown, layoffs and postponed construction, casino executives say they remain optimistic.
"Things certainly don't look as bad today as a few days ago," said Bill Weidner, The Venetian's president. "It's not as bad as the information coming out last week. We are encouraged by booking activity and people reinstating cancellations. I think we're seeing a rebound of Las Vegas after all."
