By David Shapiro

I've been sheepish lately in exchanging e-mail with friends about our vacations.

One couple I know went to Barcelona to study the 100-year-old buildings of the architect Gaudi. Other friends went on a jazz tour of Germany. Another pair took an excursion to Crater Lake National Park.

Against this culture and fine scenery, I report that I spent my vacation in Las Vegas — land of opulent gambling halls, free liquor and exotic dance clubs.

I could have said I explored New York, Paris, Venice, feudal England, the Egyptian pyramids and the Barbary Coast. Today's Las Vegas has all of this, and more.

But I had a respectable enough reason to be there without stretching the truth: My nephew was graduating from UNLV. Besides, I was in good company. Gov. Ben Cayetano had been there just ahead of me promoting Las Vegas as Hawai'i's "ninth island."

In the 20 years since my last visit, Las Vegas has become a breathtaking monument to the unreal.

You can find a medieval castle (the Excalibur) nestled between the Big Apple skyline (New York, New York) and an Egyptian pyramid (the Luxor). Down the street is a 50-story replica of the Eiffel Tower. There are as many hotel rooms as all of Waikiki on this one block.

Entertainers impersonate old stars the way the hotels impersonate cities.

There are the Elvises, of course, separated between those performing as the young Elvis and the older Elvis. Frank Sinatra Jr. has a show mimicking his dad's work. Cher arrived for a concert, and it's even money whether she'll outdraw her impersonators.

Great food is abundant with four- and five-star restaurants, expansive buffets, cuisine from every imaginable region and excellent snack-bar fare.

The excess serves one purpose: to get your butt in front of one of the bazillion slot machines that finance it all. Newer slots have buttons instead of handles, and you have to listen to voices like Regis Philbin's chat you up as your coins go bye-bye.

I loved it all, this oasis of faux grandeur built from nothing in the desert.

It also reminds that what works for Las Vegas won't necessarily work for Hawai'i. If we try to compete by bringing gambling to our shores, we'll be crushed. They can do it bigger and better.

Instead of succumbing to Vegas envy, we should remember that people visit Hawai'i and Las Vegas for different reasons.

They go to Las Vegas to cut loose and escape reality. Visitors come to Hawai'i to escape snow, stress and suburbia, but not reality. They want an experience that's different, but still very real — real natural beauty, real beach time, real sunsets, real people, real culture, real outdoor adventures, real local food.

Any effort to diversify the Hawai'i experience should follow this path. We let the concrete creep too close to the ocean at our peril.

We could learn from the Las Vegas marketing savvy. In the 20 years between my visits, the Las Vegas Strip was reinvented. Hawai'i has stood pat with relatively few major improvements to Waikiki or new visitor attractions.

Las Vegas aggressively markets with special values and deep discounts when needed. We depend on unfocused image ads and dubious exposure from sporting events like the Pro Bowl and TV shows like "Baywatch."

Numbers tell the story. Visitor spending in Las Vegas has increased by half in the past six years, while our business has remained stagnant. We don't need to import their gambling — just their street smarts.

David Shapiro can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.