Venturing to Vegas

In the words of Elvis Presley, “Viva Las Vegas!” On Thursday night I’ll be flying there for the weekend. It’ll be my first time.

I mentioned in my previous post that I’ve done more traveling this year than ever before—partly because it’s so affordable. The current economic state has presented many challenges, especially for the travel and tourism industry.

Every morning while I’m perusing the paper, I see countless ads for discount travel companies like itravel2000. My inbox is also flooded with e-mails from Air Canada coaxing me to see the latest discounts. And I do. From a consumer standpoint, their strategies and tactics have worked. I visited the Bahamas in December and will be going to New York City in February.

During my recent trip to the Bahamas, I really noticed how much the economy was hurting. This popular Caribbean destination, normally oozing with families during the holidays, was more like a ghost town.

Vegas is, no doubt, a hot travel destination and the cost to visit is at an all time low. While doing research for my trip, I came across this. The site, which is the largest of its kind in the world, is embracing social media to keep up with the “pace of change” and is probably reaching more consumers than ever before. Vegas.com is “always open” for potential visitors and has Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flikr and MySpace. Site visitors can now feel like they’re in Vegas without leaving their desk chairs. Talk about being connected.

So, this is my question: Does social media contribute to increased tourism in a plunging economy? I’ll have to report back with my findings and let you know if Elvis’s words are still true.