Vegas on the defensive

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman told President Barack Obama in a letter Feb. 12 that the President’s negative comments about companies using taxpayer money to visit his city were harmful to the tourist-dependent destination. After demanding an apology from the president, Mayor Goodman backed off statements in the letter asking Obama to refrain from calling out individual cities or destinations.

“You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime,” Obama said during an Indiana town hall meeting Feb. 2. These comments fed “unjustified stereotypes” of Las Vegas, Goodman said.

“Mr. President, I understand the enormous burden you carry in dealing with the worst economy since the Great Depression,” Goodman writes in the two-page letter. “I also understand the need for accountability, but your comments are harmful to the meetings and convention industry as a whole and Las Vegas specifically.

“The assumption that all meetings, events and incentive travel are wasteful is wrong. Now more than ever, we need businesses to travel and hold meetings and events. As we move forward, I would caution all federally elected officials to use temperance in their comments. Failure to deed the principles will damage an entire industry, and select cities, causing people to lose their jobs and homes,” he wrote.

Las Vegas is a destination that hosts 22,000 meetings and six million business travelers annually for an economic impact of $8.5 billion.