Winter tourism ad campaign targets Las Vegas consumers

Efforts to develop Las Vegas as an important feeder market to Lake Tahoe resorts takes another step this month with an advertising campaign that pitches the combination of skiing, gaming and nightlife.

The campaign titled "So Cool, It's Heavenly" is a venture of the Lake Tahoe Gaming Alliance, a cooperative effort of gaming and recreation companies around the lake, and is co-sponsored by Southwest Airlines.

Don Marrandino, senior vice president of northern Nevada operations for

Harrah's/Harvey's, said the Las Vegas market holds a number of attractions for the Lake Tahoe tourism industry:

* It's a city of 1.7 million people living within a one-hour flight and 13 flights a day are available.

* The market is economically strong with low unemployment.

* Some 70 percent of the residents of the Las Vegas area enjoy gaming.

* A significant number of Las Vegas residents have days off from work during the middle of the week, a time that's slack for most Lake Tahoe properties.

"We need to be all over that market," said Marrandino, who leads the Lake Tahoe Gaming Alliance.

The effort is particularly important, he said, because Sacramento and San Francisco, the biggest feeder markets for Lake Tahoe tourism, both have seen the advent of Indian gaming.

"For us to make up for what we've lost,we need to find a new market," he said.

The winter campaign comes on the heels of summertime ads,"So Close, So Cool," that pitched Lake Tahoe as a place for Las Vegas residents to get out of the desert heat.

That campaign,Marrandino said, appears to have driven hotel occupancies up during the summer season.A Web site developed for the winter campaign www.coollaketahoe.com directs visitors to more than 30 lodging packages that include lift tickets at Heavenly.

Because it's working with Southwest Airlines, the Lake Tahoe Gaming Alliance believes the winter campaign also will capture travelers from Arizona and California who travel to Las Vegas.

The campaign, which includes print ads, billboards and efforts to win free media attention, was developed by Lund & Manasse Advertising, Ink, of Las Vegas.

It will run through March.