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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Vegas Shooting, Client Loss Hurt Tix’s Year

Increased competition and a downturn in visitors to Las Vegas impacted the fourth quarter results of Tix Corp. The Studio City discount ticket provider, however, remained confident there will be a rebound in Vegas visitors this year and that other steps it has taken, including growth initiatives and cost reduction efforts, will help in improving its finances. Attempts to reach a representative of Tix were not successful. For the quarter ending Dec. 31, Tix reported a net loss of $5.2 million (-30 cents a share) compared with net income of $430,000 (2 cents) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue decreased by 33.6 percent to $3.6 million. The stock closed at 25 cents on April 11. There were several external factors contributing to the decrease in revenue from the company’s nine ticket kiosks, which operate in Vegas under the name Tix4Tonight. It has operated the kiosks since 2002 offering low-cost show and museum tickets and dinner reservations. One impact is the decision by MGM Resorts International to open five of its own discount ticket booths on their Vegas properties. This resulted in MGM withdrawing tickets to four of its Cirque du Soleil shows from Tix4Tonight kiosks. However, tickets for Cirque’s bestselling show, Mystere, which is owned by the Cirque and Treasure Island, continue to be sold at Tix kiosks. Another contributing factor is that tourism in the desert city had a significant and sustained decline after the Oct. 1 mass shooting that killed 58 people and injured another 851. “Public data confirms that visitation and tourism fell materially and that revenue on the Las Vegas strip and casinos fell significantly since the shooting,” Tix said in a release accompanying its fourth quarter financials. The research center for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported that visitor volume in October last year dipped by 4.2 percent. In November, the decrease was 3.7 percent, while December showed a 2.5 percent drop compared to a year earlier. “The company believes that the customers lost as a result of the Las Vegas Strip shooting and the downturn in general tourism since the event will return in 2018,” Tix said in its release. Tix executives have taken other steps to improve the financial performance of the company. They include opening a website late last year to sell discount tickets online and developing a new discount shopping program called the Vegas Savings Card. That program is used primarily for promotional purposes and not to generate revenue, the company said. Later this year, the company will launch an online magazine, the Vegas Local Expert Planning Guide, that will provide visitors information on shows, tours, attractions and dining.  Lastly, the company reduced expenses in late 2017 by cutting staff, taking voluntary cuts in executive compensation and voluntary elimination of staff and executive bonuses.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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