It seems that any sentence about Las Vegas, the people who work there or the stocks of the companies that run the big casinos ends better with the word “baby”. It’s almost like you can hear Frank saying it to Dino on their way into some smoky, after-hours cocktail party.

So, even though Bill Lerner, casino and gaming analyst at Deutsche Bank didn’t exactly end his comments on casino stock picks like Sinatra might have … well, it’s Vegas, baby!

Lerner, speaking at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in New York, spoke extensively about the stocks in the gaming sector and identified the ones he thinks have the best chance at near- and longer-term success.

Lerner was one of the featured speakers at the summit, which continues through Wednesday in our New York headquarters. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Mining; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Food and Beverages.

By Tim Hepher 

Las Vegas casino legend Sheldon Adelson launched a quest for America’s most boring city on Tuesday in a comeback to President Barack Obama’s criticism of bankers who hold meetings in the famous gaming capital.
    
Obama last month warned companies that get bailout cash against spending it on activities potentially seen as perks — sparking a row with hotel and resort operators who say they are already struggling to fill rooms and may have to cut jobs.
    
“The good news is that Las Vegas has become a synonym for a good time for adults. Let me not say adults, I’ll say grown-ups, I don’t want to give the wrong impression,” Adelson, majority owner of casino operator Las Vegas Sands, said.
    
“The bad news is that because it is a place for a good time, President Obama says that he doesn’t want taxpayer’s money to go there,” Adelson told the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit. 
    
“But I’m going to conduct a survey and I’m going to provide a prize for people who will submit the name of the worst city in the country to go to, where people can enjoy it the least. Because that’s the alternative. The alternative is you go to a place where you enjoy, or you go to to a place you don’t enjoy.”
    
The self-made billionaire, who tore down the original Sands to build the Venetian Resort complete with canals, and brought business conventions to Las Vegas, declined to nominate places for his ‘dive prize’ but took a swipe at Obama’s home town.
    
“Look, Chicago has got nine casinos. Now, God forbid if they hold a convention there someone should go to one of those casinos and enjoy themselves. God forbid. And then they’d say ‘Oh I can’t go there’,” he said.

A scandal over perks erupted in October after insurer AIG flew top brokers and executives to a Southern California resort at a cost of $440,000 shortly after it received an $85 billion government bailout.
     
“You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime,” Obama commented last month.

Trying to compare one recession or economic downswing to another is a little like trying to decide which hurricane was the worst.

I mean, if you were sitting in the middle of Hurricane Katrina, it’s not going to matter too much if Hurricane Hugo’s winds were 10 miles an hour faster. They both weren’t a lot of fun.

So it was on Tuesday when Doug Parker, chief executive of US Airways Group, tried to distinguish between the current recession and previous ones. No one wants to be too close to the eye when the howling starts.

Parker, speaking to the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in New York, said this slowdown is bad — as was the one in 2001-2002, although for diferent reasons.

Parker was one of the featured speakers at the summit, which continues through Wednesday in our New York headquarters. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Mining; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Food and Beverages.

The state of the airline industry and travel overall is not poised for a rapid takeoff in 2009 and looks like it will remain in rough shape until next year, said Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, chief executive of Air France-KLM, on Monday at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit.

The head of Europe’s largest airline, who became CEO in January, said he was unsure when things would turn around, but warned that both passenger and cargo metrics were down for the airline.

Gourgeon also said that while there is still some business travel out there, many passengers are trading down from more expensive, high-end to coach, or less expensive travel.

Gourgeon was one of the featured speakers at the summit, which continues through Wednesday in our New York headquarters. The Summit program is in its fifth year, and in 2009 will include top-level executives from  industries and sectors including everything from Infrastructure; to Mining; to Investing in India, China, Japan and Russia; to Food and Beverages.

Priceline.com CEO Jeff Boyd told the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in New York that he thinks that at least two out of the four players in the online travel sector - Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia - could be in a position for either an IPO or a sale once the economy turns up.

“I think that the most important fact there is that two of the major players are owned by private equity,” he said. ”Orbitz is controlled by Blackstone. And Travelocity and Sabre Group are controlled by TPG and Silver Lake Partners. And what that means is eventually they will be looking for a way to monetize those private equity investments, and there’s two ways of doing it.

One is through a public offering and the other is a sale. So, eventually there’s going to be some transactions there, and that could be a catalyst to some consolidation.”

The travel and leisure industry is facing its worst downturn since 2001, as the recession eats away at companies’ travel budgets and forces individuals to cancel trips. Airlines are planning a drastic dip in capacity as demand for flights evaporates, and hotels and casinos are doing their best to adapt to the new reality after an unprecedented three-year boom. Already two casino operators have filed for bankruptcy and more may follow.
 
Chief executives of some of the world’s foremost airlines, hotel and casino companies will address the economic challenges and how they plan to survive them at Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit, to be held in New York, on March 2-4, 2009.
 
The Summit will generate a series of exclusive interviews and articles from our team of expert reporters, as well as regular blog postings and online video.

The hotel industry is reeling from a decline in leisure and corporate travelers and its on track to have one of its most challenging years ever.

Speaker: Tim Behle Ernst & Young

Presenter: Bobbi Rebell New York

He might not have used exactly those words, but that was the idea from Las Vegas Sands President and Chief Operating Officer William Weidner on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in Los Angeles, Weidner listed the many things that Las Vegas has going for it that make it an attractive destination when the economy’s going well and even when it slows down.

Weidner allowed that the economy might be slowing down a little, but he thought that the proximity of Vegas and the ease of getting there, the large number of convention rooms and meeting spaces, and the fact that Americans want to be able to go someplace for vacation — even if it’s not a more expensive trip to Europe — all bodes well for the city and for Las Vegas Sands.

Weidner was the final guest of the summit, which runs through Wednesday in Los Angeles. Up next for summits is the Reuters Housing Summit, scheduled to kick off in New York and London next week.  

It’s a good problem to have — exactly what should a company do with its cash on hand.

For Sunstone Hotel Investors Chief Executive Steven Goldman, it’sreally not much of a problem at all and he addressed his thoughts on exactly what he and his board plans to do in the coming months with its cash.

Goldman, speaking at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit on Wednesday in Los Angeles, said the company was looking at four options for what to do with its cash:

1. Sit on it.

2. Buy back stock.

3. Pay down debt.

4. Fix up their existing properties.

Goldman said that Sunstone, a real estate investment trust (REIT) with 46 properties in its portfolio, would like to be doing some of each category, but would likely be a net seller of some of its lowest performing properties in the coming year, giving it even more cash for other goals.

Goldman was one of the featured speakers at this year’s summit, which runs through today. The next summit on the docket is next week’s Reuters Housing Summit held in New York and London. 

Bigger isn’t always better. Sometimes bigger can just become more unmanageable.

But for privately-held Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, the next few years is going to have a lot to do with how it manages its growth and how it goes from a company with just some cool hotels in cool spaces to a much larger player in the growing boutique arena.

Kimpton has made its name for having a bunch of different themes for its rooms — some are pet friendly, some have celebrity themes (the Jerry Garcia Suite at the Hotel Triton in San Francisco, a John Lennon Suite in Seattle), and some hotels have special rooms for people who are very tall. 

Yep. Tall people. 

Boutique hotels currently make up a very small portion of the total U.S. hotel rooms, but Chief Executive Michael Depatie sees that number growing.

For Kimpton, he sees his portfolio of hotels growing to about 60 from 42 now within three years.

While he sees the growth coming largely within the United States, Depatie also has his eye on international expansion, but not until he gets done with his current crop of projects.

Depatie was one of the featured guests at this year’s Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit, which continues through Wednesday in Reuters Los Angeles offices.