Luxury Travel Advisor - November 2007 - (Page 64) COVER STORY Steve Wynn How he put the mystique inside Wynn Las Vegas. teve Wynn, chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts, has been a catalyst for change in the resort industry ever since he entered the business. In the early seventies he transformed the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas into a Four-Diamond property known for elegance and personal service. Later in that same decade he brought the upscale Golden Nugget magic to Atlantic City (remember a very suave Frank Sinatra in those commercials?), heralding in an era of sophistication for the New Jersey gaming destination. Wynn then returned to Las Vegas, where he dared to build The Mirage. We say dared because the project was more opulent, and more expensive, than any Las Vegas had ever witnessed. Then there was the volcano in front of the resort that erupted like clockwork on the Las Vegas Strip, as part of a South Seas motif. The Mirage was the first themed resort in Las Vegas, not counting the clown concept at the aging Circus Circus. The gamble paid off. Everyone loved The Mirage, which drew crowds from all over the world. In turn, it spurred a Las Vegas renaissance, as other developers moved in quickly to create their own themed resorts and still more visitors arrived in droves to get a glimpse of a new series of one-of-a-kind, manmade miracles. Wynn, who had justly earned his spot forever in the Las Vegas his- S tory books, followed up with Treasure Island, whose full-sized pirate ship waged battle out front for passers-by on a regular basis. Then came Bellagio at the cost of a cool $1.6 billion, which offered up luxuriously styled guest rooms, lush pool areas and fine dining establishments that drew an affluent clientele that had thus far overlooked Las Vegas. Its towering dancing fountains that lined the resort’s façade—that’s dancing fountains in the desert, mind you—were unlike anything Las Vegas had ever seen. As wildly different as his three resorts were, Wynn in retrospect says they were quite similar. “Bellagio, Mirage and Treasure Island are basically the same hotel with different budgets,” says Wynn, of the properties in the Mirage Resorts portfolio, which also included the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, MS. “Mirage was a three-star guest room that had a shower/tub combination, a toilet and a sink, instead of a separate water closet and a separate shower. With all of our success and money came the opportunity to build a better mousetrap. Bellagio was going to be in its own category, and it was competing only with itself.” In 2000, Wynn had the opportunity, and the freedom, to start anew when Mirage Resorts was sold to MGM Grand. “The biggest change in my life occurred not just because I sold Mirage Resorts to BY RUTHANNE TERRERO 64 LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR | November 2007
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