Las Vegas Weekly

October 21, 2009 · 2:08 PM

Day 2: Mayor spreads his Las Vegas message in London

By Robin Leach

Mayor Oscar Goodman and his showgirls Jennifer and Portia at Wedding TV.

Photo: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

Mayor Oscar Goodman blogs about his London travels on VegasontheRoad.com:

Today was very busy but exhilarating. The highlight was meeting my counterpart in London, Mayor Boris Johnson. The gracious mayor invited us to a reception at City Hall to review the city’s progress on construction for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. I was pleased to hear that Mayor Johnson has visited our fair city before. I presented him a key to the city and invited him to stop by the next time he’s in town.

My colleague Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President/CEO Rossi Ralenkotter joined me at the reception. Together, we had the opportunity to speak with business and government leaders about Las Vegas as a tour and travel destination, and the new nonstop service on British Airways. The U.K., by the way, is the No. 1 international overseas destination for Las Vegas, which is why this new air service is a great win for our two cities on both sides of the pond!

The afternoon was filled with more media interviews, both radio and TV, including a visit to the BBC studios. Many of the questions focused on new development, the economy, international visitation and exciting projects such as CityCenter.

Given my background in the field of law, we were invited to watch court proceedings at Old Bailey, the criminal courthouse, where the barristers wear the traditional wigs while presenting their cases.

As those of you back home are well aware, our fabulous Las Vegas showgirls attract attention wherever we go, so we had no problem crossing the busy London streets to get to the courthouse -- they stopped traffic for us!

In the evening, I had dinner with representatives from the International Rugby Board and had further discussions about the International Rugby Tournament and Fan Festival that will be held in Las Vegas starting in February 2010. This event will bring thousands of fans from all over the world to Las Vegas to support their teams. During dinner, my pals from Bombay Sapphire stopped by. They have come up with a new recipe called the Goodman Gold Double Martini Cocktail. It was a real treat!

What a day! More to come tomorrow.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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