Las Vegas embarks on hotel room boom

SO MANY hotels are being built in Las Vegas that there will be 125,000 bedrooms in the city by the end of next year.

Three 500- to 600-bedroom hotels are planned for outside the city centre, but the rest are the huge themed hotel and casinos for which the city has become famous.

In September the 2,916-bedroom Paris Hotel & Casino will open, featuring replicas of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. This month sees the completion of the first phase of the Venetian, a 3,000-bedroom hotel with real canals. And opening next Spring are a $1.3b (£800m) 2,600-bedroom Aladdin-themed hotel, and the Boat, inspired by the Titanic and in the shape of a ship with 1,000 "cabins". The developers include gaming companies and local entrepreneurs.

City officials have no fears that the new hotels will find there is not enough business.

"These hotels are attractions in themselves, and they all invest in extensive marketing," said Kevin Bagger, senior research analyst at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.