The economy hits Las Vegas hard

by Grant Martin on

When the economy starts to slow down and consumers cut back on spending, one of the first things to suffer is the entertainment budget. This can happen locally, from eating out or watching films out to a broader radius — involving travel.

Traditional travel destinations like Orlando and Las Vegas feel the heat worst. So much of their local economy is based on tourists visiting, spending and investing in their economy that the effects of a market downturn are pronounced.

Subtly, I saw these effects first hand as a recent visitor to Las Vegas: high end clubs that were empty late into the night, low wager tables in the nicest casinos on the strip and long taxi lines waiting to pick up stray passers by.

On my way out of town I hailed a cab at the front of the Palms under the hot, late summer heat. Driving down Tropicana on the way to McCarran airport I asked the driver how business was.

“Slow,” he told me. Over the course of the year, more hotel rooms had progressively gone unbooked, tables been deserted and taxis roamed the streets empty, searching for fares. This was the last year driving for this cabbie. He told me at the end of the next season he was leaving the city where he had spent the last twenty years to head for greener pastures in Portland.

As we pulled into the terminal, he pointed over at “the pit,” the loading zone through which cabs filter into the airport. The line stretched back through the gates, around the corner and out of sight. Like that queue, the Las Vegas economy has a long hard road ahead.

Is Scotch the World’s Most Popular Liquor?

by Josh Lew on

Airlines are suffering, as are a majority of businesses that supply luxury goods. Scotch, however, is not among the sad faces. The BBC reports that the U.K.’s most famous beverage is enjoying a 14% increase in exports over the past year. Are people drowning their sorrows? Surely there are cheaper ways to forget your pains.

Many of the new markets for high quality scotch are in Asia. Brands like Chivas Regal are a status symbol amongst the new money of China. That puts them ahead of many other luxury brands looking to cash in on the growing middle class. But sales are even high in North America and other long time scotch buyers.

This begs the question: is scotch the world’s most popular liquor? Every region of the globe has their own brand of rotgut. But when a certain type of beverage has success like scotch has enjoyed recently, one has to wonder. In Mexico and on college campuses, Cuervo rules, but what if you take the whole world into account, it has to be scotch. Am I right, readers?

3 of the 5 dying cities are in Ohio: Could tourism help?

by Jamie Rhein on

Canton, Youngstown and Dayton are on the list of the five fastest dying cities. Dying sounds terribly grim. How about shrinking? I can’t imagine that no one will ever live in these places one day. They are all on highways for one thing. Still, as industries have become smaller and have all but disappeared in these cities, the economy is not holding people in large numbers or attracting more.

Each place does have decent offerings and worth a shout out. I’ve been to Canton and Dayton and driven through Youngstown. I went to Canton specifically for the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. A Japanese teacher who stayed with us a few years ago wanted to go there so we obliged. It’s a lovely drive through Ohio’s rural countryside. Our teacher friend was quite the football fan so this was a thrill for him. I enjoyed myself as well, and I am most certainly not into football. I don’t dislike it. I’m just not a fan.

I went to Dayton twice. Once to take in Wright brothers and Katharine Wright historic sites for an article I was writing, and the other time to do a restaurant review of Jay’s Seafood in the historic Oregon District. I found it to be a lovely small city and can’t imagine that entrepreneurial types won’t find solutions to the shrinkage problem. I have plans to head to Dorthy Lane Market in the near future.

Youngstown has been on the radar as a struggling city for awhile. The town has been doing some work to revitalize itself. Before BloggingOhio ended there were several Youngstown related posts, mostly by Chris Barzak, a writer, and now professor who lives in Youngstown that highlighted these efforts, as well as the interesting things to do there.

As people are looking for places to go closer to home for a quick get-a-way, maybe tourism could help–at least a tad.

Summer travel woes? How about a staycation?

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Summer vacation season is upon us here in the United States. Normally the first day of June is our green light to pack a bag, jump into the SUV or hop on an airplane and head out for some well deserved time off. But a variety of forces are conspiring this summer to hold some of us back – high gas prices, continued airline surcharges, and high food prices. It’s been enough to inspire its own trend – the “staycation.”

Several newspapers have been reporting on the phenomenon, in which many Americans are choosing to travel much closer to home this summer on shorter weekend trips or even just maximize their time in the backyard by investing in outdoor furniture or backyard grills.

Are you kidding me? This has to be one of the lamest trends in recent memory. I understand times are tough but there are plenty of creative ways to make that trip to California or even, YES, Europe, happen this summer. Use your frequent flier miles. Cut back on that bottle of wine at dinner. Pack a picnic lunch instead of eating out. Skip a few trips to the bar. My point is this – travel is one of the most important experiences you can have during your lifetime. If there’s a place you really want to visit – don’t let finances or getting time off at work or fears of terrorism be your excuse.

And if you still need inspiration, just look at blogger Grant, who is considering a 4 day trip to Shanghai for the Fourth of July. If he can make it happen, so can you!

The comeback kid: Europe!

by Jerry Guo on

That’s the conclusion reached by columnist Paul Krugman in today’s New York Times. He argues that Europe is actually doing much better than what lots of pundits and politicians in the states are making it out to be. Case in point: employment has increased more in Europe than stateside since 2000.

We’ve of course seen more concrete evidence of this recently, in all of our postings about European travelers coming to New York for bargain shopping. It’s a fact now that the Euro is rivaling the dollar in world dominance, and that the European economy is just about as big as the US economy.

Krugman’s column ultimately argues that it’s possible to have your cake–and eat it too. The Europeans have universal health-care and a guaranteed safety net for the poor, but they’ve managed to do this without having their economy go down the drain. As for Americans, we’ll always have our cute version of Europe: Canada!