Technological and Environmental Pest Analysis of Las Vegas - Research Paper Example

Technological and Environmental Pest Analysis of Las Vegas Technological analysis Infrastructure: Las Vegas is one of the well known destinations for word renowned hotels. As early as 1950s, the resort building process accelerated in Las Vegas. As for example Desert Inn by San Diego, Sahara Hotel by Milton Prell and Sands Hotel were building in 1950s. Riviera Hotel, constructed in 1955 was the first high rise hotel with nine stories. In this era many hotels opened in the Valley and each of them used the world class technology to offer something new and innovative to the guests visiting them. Today there are many large hotels operating in the valley of Las Vegas (Las Vegas Online Entertainment Guide-a, 2011). These growing hotels assisted the city to improve its infrastructure condition. Tourism and conventional industries are the main source of income. There are some high tech companies operating in Las Vegas. Considering the infrastructure of the city, it can be considered as the ‘mirage capital’ of America (CSN, 2011). The city has a well developed transportation were more than 965 cabs services and approximately 325 limousines are available. Citizens Area Transit (CAT), a well known public transportation company offers service over 31 routes throughout the city of Las Vegas (Las Vegas Online Entertainment Guide-b, 2011). In 2008, Director of Department of Public Works explained that the infrastructure future outlook of Las Vegas is quite bright as more than $900 million has been invested for improvement of the streets. This division has also planned for introducing clean water coalition system, control of water pollution and installation of traffic system. The government is also taking the responsibility of developing parks for the public use (City of Las Vegas Department of Public Works, 2008). Energy: Nevada has the second largest geothermal resources, just next to California, that is used for production of electricity from geothermal energy. The jet fuel produced by the Nevada has a high consumption rate as the demand for the airport of Las Vegas is quite high. The city also has a large demand for cleaner burning gasoline blend that has a low volatility. Demand for motor oxygenated gasoline increases mainly in the winter months (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2011). As compared to the other parts of US, the rate of electricity consumption is quite high in Las Vegas. On an average each resident in the city consumes approximately 20,000kWh of electricity per year. Such high rate of electricity consumption results in production of 160,000,000 tonnes of CO2. On the other hand, an average American consumes almost 10,660 kWh in a year (The Fun Times Guide to Living Green, 2011). As per the information published by Forbs, the casino in Las Vegas consumes more that 20 percent of the total energy demand by Nevada. The power consumption by the casinos is equivalent to 5 Giga-Watt. In 2007, the energy demand by the city in a summer day was as high as 5,600 megawatts and it was projected that by 2015 the demand will reach to 8,000 megawatts per day. In spite of all the development in improving energy production, it will be difficult to minimise prevailing energy deficiency (Helman, 2007). University Research: University of Nevada is quite active in capturing, preserving and sharing the intellectual research conducted by the faculty, staff, students and other collaborated stakeholders. The university library possesses a huge collection of articles, audio presentation, video presentation and monographs, research work as well as technical paper, reports, theses, data sets and publicity funded research (UNLV, 2011). This research based university receives huge funds for development and extension. Innovation: The city is more focused to represent itself as an innovative and creative destination. The desire for innovation and creativity is visible in the building structure and the creative lights used to make the city look attractive. However, the researchers conducted in the University of Nevada is focused for creating new technologies that can be used to make the city more energy efficient and eco-friendly. Implementation: Considering the changes taking place in the technology sector, the hotels in Las Vegas are implementing major changes in their corporate website. For example, Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel is updating the website so that people can visualise photographs, can collect information regarding rates, availability of rooms and other information. Such user friendly website will act as an effective marketing tool for the hotel and will attract more and more visitors (Luxury Hotel 3D, 2008). Communication: The popular daily (morning) newspaper is Las Vegas Review-Journal. The weekly popular newspaper is Las Vegas Sentinel-Voice, produced by an African- American community. Sun, general weekly newspaper is also enjoyed by many readers. Some of the popular magazines are Las Vegas Sentinel-Voice, What's On In Las Vegas Magazine and other scholarly journals on arts, foodservice and corporate business environment. The city has four commercial and one public broadcasted station. The charm for ratio and FM is still prevailing among the people of Las Vegas (City Data, 2009). Business & Government: The government in Las Vegas provide full support to make the city an attractive destination for conducting business. There is no personal tax, no corporate income tax, no inventory tax, no estate tax and no special intangible tax. The business licence fee is of $200 per business. Graduated tax rate on the gross gaming revenue is 6.75 percent (Vegas Redevelopment Agency & City of Las Vegas Office of Business Development, 2010). Environmental analysis Pollution: The casinos in Las Vegas consumes a huge amount of energy; almost 20 percent of the total energy consumed by Nevada. In the early day, Las Vegas was symbolized as a city of joy and enjoyment, so ample lightning was used. The main aim was to cast a lively image of the city. However, this excessive use of lighting has resulted in large Carbon Di-oxide emission that increases the danger of global warming. Waste management: To review the consciousness among the hotels and projects under construction, a survey was conducted where twenty-three major LVSH properties, five upcoming projects, and one hotel expansion project was analyzed. The result reflects a poor awareness towards waste management. This indicated that with further development and expansion of the city, the problem associated with waste management may grow (Levey, 2007). Recycling: In the resent years, the government of Las Vegas has realized the need of effective recycling of waste materials. Waste products like paper, scrapes and water are recycled to minimize the pollution level. The government has started some programs like “Drive up, Drop off”, which is associated with recycling of newspaper, paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum and steel (UNLV-a, 2011). Effect in tourism: The increasing pollution levels in Las Vegas have resulted in degradation of natural resources. Land and water pollution resist the tourists to visit the city because this may adversely affect their health. Again, the tourists who visit the city are also responsible for growing levels of pollution in Las Vegas. Tax: The government of Las Vegas is famous for introducing ‘no tax’ policy. As the government put no major pressure on the hotels and other business houses for corporate social responsibility, the companies have also neglected the environmental factors. Weather: The city has a sunny weather for a large part of the year. Being an oasis in the desert, the hotels and resorts have to rely on air conditioners for maintaining comfortable temperature. This results in high rate of energy consumption and Carbon Di-oxide emission. With global warming, the temperature of the city may further increase. Peoples concern about the environment: With growing concern about environment, the visitors are getting more concern about environment pollution and eco-friendly technology. With time, the number of ‘Green Consumers’ visiting the city will increase. The new projects and changes in the policies introduced by the government also reflect that in near future the people of Las Vegas will become more concern about the environment. Reference City Data. (2009). Las Vegas: Communications. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-West/Las-Vegas-Communications.html. City of Las Vegas Department of Public Works. (2008). OUTLOOK 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/files/PublicworksOutlook08.pdf. CSN. (2011). About Las Vegas. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.csn.edu/pages/155.asp. Helman, C. (March 12, 2007). Lighting Las Vegas. Forbes Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0312/092.html. Las Vegas Online Entertainment Guide-a. (2011). History of Las Vegas. [Online]. Available at: http://www.lvol.com/lvoleg/hist/lvhist.html [Accessed on February 18, 2011]. Las Vegas Online Entertainment Guide-b. (2011). Las Vegas Fact. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.lvol.com/lvoleg/hist/lvfact.html. Levey, A. M. January 12, 2007. An Analysis of the environmental content of Las Vegas Strip hotels. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://digitalcommons.library.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1614&context=thesesdissertations. Luxury Hotel 3D. (May 09, 2008). Las Vegas Luxury Hotel Announces Innovative Online Changes. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.luxuryhotel3d.com/a291450-las-vegas-luxury-hotel-announces-innovative.cfm. The Fun Times Guide to Living Green. (2011). Las Vegas Strip: An Energy Consumption Nightmare. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://green.thefuntimesguide.com/2007/04/las_vegas_energy_use.php. UNLV. (2011). Browse Research and Scholarship. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://digitalcommons.library.unlv.edu/. UNLV-b (2011). Drop Off Recycling. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://facilities.unlv.edu/recycling/driveby.html. U.S. Energy Information Administration. (February 03, 2011). State Energy Profile. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.eia.doe.gov/state/state_energy_profiles.cfm?sid=NV. Vegas Redevelopment Agency & City of Las Vegas Office of Business Development. (November 2010). Business Guide. Office of Business Development. Retrieved February 18, 2011 from http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/files/BusinessGuide.pdf Read More