Published On: February 4, 2002
More than 160 guests from South Shore, North Shore, Reno, San Francisco and Sacramento attended the third annual SMG South Shore Tourism Conference, held Tuesday, January 29, 2002. Designed to educate the attendees about the current visitor market and the key challenges and opportunities facing South Shore, the conference continued to address the extensive capital improvements taking place throughout South Lake Tahoe. In addition to the thought-provoking information presented by local, regional and state experts, a variety of new ideas and programs were introduced to help motivate and challenge local businesses and the community to strengthen its competitive advantage. Conference highlights included presentations from Bruce Bommarito, Executive Director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, and Caroline Beteta, Executive Director of the California Travel and Tourism Commission who presented current and future state tourism programs that will impact South Shore. Attendees also learned about the new socio-economic lakewide threshold study and South Shore and new bike trail recreation attraction. The program concluded with a roundtable segment entitled, andquot;Key Challenges and Opportunities Facing South Shore over the next 12 months,andquot; which allowed attendees the opportunity to participate in a Question and Answer session with top regional tourism professionals. Panelists included Dave Childs, City Manager for South Lake Tahoe, Skip Sayre, Vice President of Marketing for Harrah and Harveys Casino Resorts; John Wagnon, Vice President of Marketing at Heavenly Ski Resort; and Tom Medland, Director of Marketing at the Reno/Tahoe International Airport who provided their expert analysis and insight in the areas of Redevelopment, gaming, ski, air service priorities and competitive pressures. Sponsors included the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, HD 96 Publishing, Tahoe Daily Tribune, Embassy Suites Resort, Sierra Heritage Magazine, Lake Tahoe Community College, South Lak
