Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/90248
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AL POWERS (SAENZ); JEFF GALE (ARIEL); RYAN REASON (KÀ) FROM THE PUBLISHER I toasted "The List" honoree, Glacéau's Corey Saenz, at Smith & Wollensky. Las Vegas is resilient: You have to be stubborn I test-drove Bentley's 2013 Mulsanne (starting around $290,000) at the grand opening of Towbin Motorcars. to make a dazzling gambling metropolis thrive in the middle of a desert. It hasn't been easy: Almost 40 years ago, when Atlantic City's major casinos were built, prognosticators deemed Vegas doomed, thinking no East Coast travelers would flock west. They were wrong. Then the emergence of Native American gaming resorts all over the country brought on a new set of naysayers who thought the ubiquity would hurt inbound traffic to Las Vegas. They were wrong. Next came internet gaming… some legal, most not. Pundits claimed people would gamble from the comfort of their homes and therefore not bother with the trek to the desert. They were wrong. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority believes wholeheart- edly that 2012 will be a watershed year in terms of visitation to Las Vegas, as we hope to break a record set in 2007, when we had 39.2 million visitors. You see, Las Vegas is about much more than gaming. Las Vegas is about emotion, Follow me on Twitter at @josefvann and on vegasmagazine.com. that level of excitement you can't get anywhere else. ABOVE: In LA for Los Angeles Confidential's event with Dennis Quaid, star of CBS's show Vegas, with Ariel Gale. LEFT: Season for giving: Even the international cast of Cirque du Soleil's KÀ gets in the spirit of Thanksgiving, always arranging a huge feast backstage. This November as we head to the election booths, Las Vegas also welcomes Cirque du Soleil's newest venture, Zarkana at Aria; Winter in Venice at Venetian and Palazzo starting November 18; Simon Hammerstein's irreverent The Act at The Shoppes at The Palazzo; and Rolex presented by Hyde Park Jewelers at The Forum Shops at Caesars. The local gala charity scene is also replete with events geared toward giving back to a multitude of amazing causes. In fact, Vegas magazine will raise money for eight charities in one night at our annual Vegas Gives event November 13 at The Shoppes at The Palazzo. I had better dust off my tux. I'm proud to live in a philanthropic city, a city that also attracts almost twice as many tourists as there are residents in Beijing, and ultimately a city that has major resilience. JOSEF VANN 24 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM