SMALL-TOWN APPEAL

Las Vegas boosters want a tiny town to help solve a big problem.

Namely, they're asking folks from Cranfills Gap, Texas, population 358, to make big, bright Las Vegas more approachable for recession-weary consumers.

Whether the good people of Cranfills Gap are up to the task of reversing a troubling decline in Las Vegas tourism remains to be seen.

But beginning today, they'll sure have fun trying.

"Everybody still can't believe it," Cranfills Gap Mayor David Witte said about the town being plucked from obscurity for use in a $2.5 million ad campaign by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Witte and more than 100 other Cranfills Gap residents are set to touch down today at McCarran International Airport for a four-night, five-day getaway in Sin City.

They'll be followed by film crews and brandish hand-held cameras of their own for the duration of the trip. The footage will be chopped up, spliced and spit out onto the Internet and over the airwaves for a global audience.

With luck, the sight of folks from Real America whooping it up under the neon will prompt legions of potential travelers to trade fiscal fear for frivolous fun -- at least for a couple days.

"Las Vegas is a great place for a short break or an escape from your everyday life," said Terry Jicinsky, the authority's vice president of marketing. "We took it to the extreme of inviting an entire city to take a break together."

Given the reality of Las Vegas tourism numbers, it's no surprise the publicly funded booster group is willing to go to extremes.

The authority's most recent visitation figures showed a 10.2 percent decline in volume during October, and no one expects November or December numbers to be much better.

The amount of money gamblers lost in Nevada casinos fell 22.3 percent in October.

Those declines alone represent $476 million that was spent in Nevada in October 2007, but not during the same month this year.

And the trend prompted the authority and its advertising agency, R&R Partners, to quickly launch the so-called "Vegas Bound" campaign in an attempt to revive the destination's mojo.

At the heart of the campaign is the Cranfills Gap gambit.

R&R identified the town as representative of Middle America and arranged for residents to make a group trip to Las Vegas.

"We were looking for a small town, obviously we couldn't carry this out for a city of any size," Jicinsky said.

Upon arrival, they'll be divided into groups based on interests.

Jicinsky said some were interested in country and western attractions, others will hit a few spas and one couple plans to get married.

Expect to see footage of the hi-jinks early next year. The authority intends to include it in television and Internet ads aimed at making Las Vegas seem more accessible and affordable than competitor destinations.

Jicinsky said the idea is to convince more people to take the Southern California view of Las Vegas as a quick, cheap getaway they can visit at the drop of a hat.

"You can make the plans on a Wednesday and be traveling on a Friday without a huge financial commitment," he said. "A break is more likely to happen in today's economy than a full-fledged vacation."

As for folks from Cranfills Gap, they're just hoping to have a little fun and maybe draw attention to their little town.

The last time Cranfills Gap got such broad exposure was a 1970 visit by Charles Kuralt, the newsman known as a chronicler of all things folksy.

About eight years ago, Witte said a Cranfills Gap resident appeared in a commercial for Blue Bell ice cream, which comes from a dairy based in Brenham, Texas.

Witte hopes the Las Vegas trip will bring the spotlight back to his town, in addition to giving residents who make the trip a fun distraction.

"The ones who are going are tickled; the ones who are not, well, they have to know we are getting our town out there." Witte said.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861.