Is Las Vegas an Important City?

Blisterman

Me and my friend were debating this. I think it is, it has amazing resorts, and the amount of stuff there is to do there, is amazing. My friend doesnt think thats enough to make it an important city. He thinks that it's not, because it doesnt have much political power, or history, It doesnt have a very big population and its not much of a centre of commerce. What do you guys think? Does a city have to be powerful to be considered important, or does it just have to do what no other city does?

I'd put this in the travel forum, but it's not really travel related. We're going there next year, though.

Basq

Went there a couple of years back for a weekend!

Thought it was an absolute sh*thole, to be honest!

joejoem

Polotics doesnt matter, Millions of dollars are spent there every day, the goverment makes huge money on tax so yes it is an important city.

Trojan

Las Vegas is better known for it's tech conferences than casinos these days.

I've been there, and I think it's a pretty disgusting display of wasted wealth.

MrJoeSoap

Wouldn't say its very important in terms of political power etc... but I would have to assume that the whole purpose of the place is to make a small few individuals wealthy off the money of tourists.

Tourist Statistics for 2003:

Visitor Volume 35,849,691
Visitor Spending $31,464,678,364

Hotel Rooms 124,270
Occupancy Rate Hotel 92.5%
Occupancy Rate Motel 71.9%
Total Room Occupancy 89.1%
Room Nights Occupied 34,463,687
Average Room Rate $74.30
Conventions Held 4,149
Convention Attendance 3,853,363
Convention Impact $4,289,389,724
Airline Passengers 36,865,866
Gross Gaming Revenue $7,673,489,000

Blisterman

We werent really debating whether its good or bad. We're both looking forward to going, but whether it can be considered an important city. I think it is. You can live out your craziest fantasies there. Not many cities can claim that.

MrJoeSoap

Blisterman wrote:

You can live out your craziest fantasies there. Not many cities can claim that.

All my crazy fantasies involve Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim in one way or another. Pity it's not a city.

MorningStar

I actually got married there.

It's important to me!

In general I would say it has to be called important. It probably has the most casinos in the world per sq foot. It has a huge amount of conference centres and I think it may have the most and largest but not sure. It had a specialist breeding program for endager tigers(the white ones). While it's residential population is small I am pretty sure the number of people there tends to swell to that of a large city at the weekends. Whether you like gambling or not it is common throughout the world, Vegas has to be considered the gambling capitol in the western world at least.

There are two big budget TV shows based in the place too so it's got at least interest which can be important enough.

MrJoeSoap

MorningStar wrote:

I actually got married there.

How is Ms. Spears these days?

MorningStar

MrJoeSoap wrote:

How is Ms. Spears these days?

Toxic

windowgazer

The Killers are from there.... that must help its importance ranking...

Dave

windowgazer wrote:

The Killers are from there.... that must help its importance ranking...

I doubt it somehow.

Hyflyer

It's crazy alright that there's under half a million people living there. Nearly one hotel room for every 4 citizens

Saruman

Hyflyer wrote:

It's crazy alright that there's under half a million people living there. Nearly one hotel room for every 4 citizens

There are more than half a million... add a million on there and you will be closer (greater vegas area).. it has a similar population to Dublin though not as big afaik.

I got married there too. I like it, not for gambling but i liked walking around the strip. Downtown was even better.. the old las vegas (what you see in movies like honey i blew up the kid). They put a roof on freemont street and have cool displays (the roof is a big display screen).

Femelade

windowgazer wrote:

The Killers are from there.... that must help its importance ranking...

thats true!
the killers rock!!

Dimitri

whatever about political power it certainly has history, originally built by the mafia etc. it is one of the last remaining places inthe states where liberal ideas are widly accepted,this makes it a very impotant city even without politics. That and you can GAMBLE!!

Saruman

Its the most important city in Nevada... Thats not saying much as there is little there
Compared to say.. LA which is almost a country in itself (if it were it would be one of the richest!!)