By Joe Weinert, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jun. 14, 2001 - - ONCE AGAIN THE TRUMP CASINOS received a lofty rating
of questionable merit, the Five Star Diamond Award from the American Academy
of Hospitality Sciences in New York.
Both Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Marina received the award, again making
Trump the only hotel-casino brand in the world to win the academy's five-star
award.
| Coincidentally, a Trump executive sits on the
academy's board of trustees. Each of the 23 hoteliers or restaurateurs
on the academy's board is a five-star winner.
Trump won six five-star awards this year: The Taj, Marina and Donald
Trump's private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., in the hotel division,
and one restaurant in each of Trump's three casinos in the restaurant division.
Joseph Cinque, the hospitality academy's director of operations, said
a seat on the board of trustees does not ensure a five-star rating. An
establishment must first win a five-star rating before being invited to
sit on the board, he said.
The only other hotel-casino to have ever won the academy's five-star
rating was the Rio in Las Vegas. The hotel-casino won the prize as late
as 1999, when John Lipkowitz was president of the hotel and also a member
of the academy's board.
Rio is no longer represented on the board and, coincidentally, is no
longer a five-star winner.
"Harrah's bought it and the product went right downhill," Cinque said.
Hogwash, says Harrah's Entertainment Inc.
"Unlike the Five Star Diamond crew, we don't sit around dreaming up
awards to present to ourselves," Harrah's spokesman Gary Thompson said,
citing the 19 awards given Rio by readers of Casino Player magazine.
It's not quite the Forum Shops, but Caesars Atlantic City is claiming
to be the city's first hotel-casino with a major shopping and dining complex
-- and it did so without spending a dime or breaking a sweat.
Caesars decided to finally embrace the Shops on Ocean One mall, which
it has owned for five years but heretofore considered an undesirable stepchild.
The 18-year-old mall, on a 900-foot pier directly across the Boardwalk
entrance from Caesars, is home to more than 100 shops and restaurants on
three levels. It has no anchor stores and is widely considered a second-tier
mall in greater Atlantic City.
|
The American Academy
of Hospitality Sciences
Honorary Board of Trustees
Mr. George D. Schwab, Chairman, The American Academy of Hospitality
Sciences
Mr. Joseph V. Cinque, Director of Operations, The American
Academy of Hospitality Sciences
Mr. Peter Bally - Managing Director, Park Hotel Vitznau,
Lucerne, Switzerland
Mr. Heinz Beck - Executive Chef, Two Star Michelin, La
Pergola, Rome Italy
Ms. Sandie Benas, The American Academy of Hospitality
Sciences
Mr. Beekman Devereux Beavers, The American Academy of
Hospitality Sciences
Mr. Michael Brown -General Manager, Brazilian Court,
Palm Beach, FL
Mr. David Burke - Executive Chef, Park Avenue Cafe, New
York, NY
Ms. Christina Cox - Founder/Executive Director, The National
Museum of Catholic Art & History
Mr. Mark DeCocinis - General Manager, The Portman Ritz-Carlton,
Shanghai, China
Mr. Alberto del Hoyo - General Manager, The Beverly Hills
Hotel & Bungalows
Mr. Larry Forgione - Chef/Proprietor, An American Place,
New York, NY
Mr. Hans R. Fritz - General Manager, Rome Cavalieri Hilton,
Italy
Mr. Vittorio Gai , The American Academy of Hospitality
Sciences
Mr. Jens Grafe -General Manager, Turnberry Isle Resort
& Club, Aventura, FL
Ms. Susanne Hatje - General Manager, Mandarin Oriental
Munich, Germany
Mr. Herve Humler - Executive Vice President International,
The Ritz-Carlton LLC, Atlanta, GA
Mr. Ezio Indiani - General Manager, Hotel Des Bergues,
Geneva, Switzerland
Mr. Walter Kohlross- Trustee
Mr. Bernd Lembcke - Managing Director, The Mar-a-Lago
Club, Palm Beach, Florida
Mr. Mark Lettenbichler - General Manager, The Ritz-Carlton,
Hong Kong
Mr. Marcel Levy - General Manager, Hotel Eden, Rome,
Italy
Mr. Edward Malloy - President, Building & Construction
Trades Council, New York, NY
Mr. James McBride - General Manager, The Ritz-Carlton,
Washington
Mr. Franco Mora - General Manager, Hotel Ritz, Paris,
France
Mr. Laurence M. Neuman, M.D. - Medical Director Urgent
Medical Care P.C., New York, NY
Mr. Guenther Richter - General Manager, Swissotel New
York/ The Drake, New York, NY
Mr. Horst Schulze - President, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Company, L.L.C.
Mr. Gary Schweikert - General Manager , The Plaza, New
York, NY
Mr. Thomas M. Straw - Director Public Funds Marketing,
Des Moines, Iowa
Mr. Michel Rey - General Manager, Baur ac Lac - Zurich,
Switzerland
Mr. Peter W. Tischmann- Managing Director, Ciragan Palace
Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey
Mr. Jean-George Vongerichten- Chef/Proprietor, Jean George,
New York, NY
Mr. Heinz Winkler - Proprietor, Residenz Heinz Winkler,
Aschau, Germany |
|
Paul Henderson, though, sees a value-added benefit for Caesars, already
one of the city's top-performing casinos.
"I just think it's something that should have been done a long time
ago," said Henderson, who became Caesars' president eight months ago.
"When I came over here, I went over to the mall and I was pleasantly
surprised. I had kind of envisioned it being a disaster, but it wasn't.
It dawned on me that there is a lot of shopping and a lot of food areas
-- especially for people who want to spend $10, $15 or $20 for a meal --
and a lot of fun things to do."
Caesars has begun an advertising blitz promoting its newfound shopping
and dining attraction, offering members of its Emperors Club a 15 percent
discount at most of the retail outlets.
ATLANTIC CITY CASINOS in May broke a three-month skid of declines in
gross gaming revenue, though the result did not have operators crowing.
The dozen casinos won $368.9 million from gamblers last month, an increase
of 1.5 percent compared to the same month last year, according to unofficial
results.
Through five months, the industry is trailing last year's pace by 0.7
percent.
"It's a little bit of a disappointment. This is not exciting," said
Jefferies & Co. analyst Larry Klatzkin.
--Joe Weinert covers the gaming industry for The Press of Atlantic City.
He can be reached at 609-272-7221.
-----To see more of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, or to subscribe to
the newspaper, go to http://www.lvrj.com.
(c) 2001, Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Business News. DJT, HET, |
