Crystal’s View

Last week I mentioned I was going to Denver. I had a great time, but Denver left a bad taste in my mouth.

I went to Colorado for work. My job includes PR duties in the tourism biz. Each year, Las Vegas celebrates National Tourism Week by thanking the tens of thousands of people who work in the industry locally. We also thank the millions of people who travel to Las Vegas annually. In 2007, 39.2 million people visited Vegas. 

National Tourism Week will be celebrated May 10, but Las Vegas decided to blow it out big with an early promotion. This year’s theme is “Discover Great American Traditions.” In recognition, we traveled to five major cities across the country with showgirls, a true Las Vegas icon! We visited several attractions in Chicago, Denver, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. Think Pike’s Market, Balboa Park, Golden Gate Bridge, Wrigley Field and Coors Field. We celebrated each city by bringing a little Las Vegas flair to it.

The mission was to visit various attractions in each city and sign locals up for a chance to win two round-trip tickets to Las Vegas with a two night hotel stay, courtesy of Southwest Airlines. To make it fun, we took polaroid snapshots of people standing with the showgirls and gave them the photos as a souvenir.

Now, I know it’s normal to see half-naked women wearing sparkling costumes, feather boas and elaborate head-pieces just about anywhere in Las Vegas, but it was a completely different story in Denver. The people there seemed utterly disgusted at the sight of the showgirls. More people than not were rude and many ignored us completely as we offered a free photo with the girls! I was totally shocked. I thought people would have fun seeing a LV showgirl hanging around popular parts of Denver. Furthermore, they had a chance to win a free trip to Vegas, but the excitement just wasn’t there. 

Throughout the day we went to the state capitol, Coors Field, Union Station and the 16th Street Mall. I thought we would have the most fun outside Coors Field in the LoDo District since there was a ballgame in the afternoon. But, the people there were not so friendly either. What’s crazy about this whole thing is that Denver is one of our key markets, which means Denverites do travel to Vegas. So what was their deal? Ugh, annoying! What made it even more disappointing was reading emails all day from my colleagues saying the showgirls were a hit in the other cities!

Anyway, we kept our spirits high and made the best of our trip. We did have several great people who played along! And, despite the people of Denver, I truly loved Downtown. It was very cool, and I would like to go back to hang out for a day or two and see the sights. But, as far as I’m concerned, Denverites can stay at home!

Enjoy some of the pics below from our day in Denver!