Well, right now, the California caters to Hawaiians, with great Hawaiian food in all their restaurants, a hawaiian ice cream store, and specialized stuff in their gift stores. You can even get free beef jerkey with a hawaiian drivers license. Many casinos have catered to Japanese and other asians for years, having pai gow tiles as one of the games they spread. I know the California has been very successful, and perhaps that's what Barrick is hoping for.
I think catering to a specific market can be a good thing. It creates a unique hotel, gives you a solid customer base, but still gives you appeal to others outside that group. But I don't think that targeting a specific ethnic group is really the answer. There's too wide of a base within one ethnic group to have a focus for a property. Do they want to add Latino food to their restaurants? What kind of Latino food? Living in San Diego, I can take you to multiple places that all have authentic Mexican food, and it'll all be vastly different.
They'd be better off catering to a specific group - like people from Southern California (like me). LVC had a deal that if you win a big enough jackpot, you'd get 2 free nights 4 times a year. That's a great deal for people who can drive in, want to stay cheap, but will still drop a few hundred bucks at the tables in a weekend. I should be getting tons of coupons for buy one night, get the second free even being a low roller, just because I live close, but I don't. Casinos should be sending coupons and ads to Southern Californians on a monthly basis to drum up business, just in case they're sitting around thinking "What should I do this weekend".
I think I've kinda gone off on a tangent, but some interesting ideas anyways. Sure would be fun to work in casino marketing. 
Mieko
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-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence Boxer [mailto:ljbo…@…net]
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 10:03 PM
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [vpFREE] LVSun - Plaza may hold key to downtown LV future
I'd like to hear how that particular idea is in any way constructive. "Cater
to (the) Latino population" as opposed to what, everyone else? To me, this
is every bit as distasteful as an article a month or two ago talking about a
resort that would cater specifically to gays. Why does a specific group need
their own resort? Would this resort, then, not cater to those of other
ethnic or racial groups?