Rossi Ralenkotter, who became one of the most influential executives in the U.S. travel industry through his 45 years with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), died early Friday after a 16-year battle with cancer.

A spokesperson said Ralenkotter, 78, died at Nathan Adelson Hospice, where he spent the past week surrounded by members of his family — his wife of 37 years, Mary Jo, five children and 10 grandchildren. He served as president and CEO of the LVCVA from 2004 until his retirement in 2018. At the time of his departure, the tourism agency was embroiled in an investigation over the misuse of airline travel gift cards. 

Ralenkotter joined the LVCVA in 1973 and was an active participant in the rise and rebrand of Las Vegas from its roots as a casino town to an international destination.  

During Ralenkotter’s four-and-a-half decades with the LVCVA, Las Vegas tourism grew from almost 8.5 million visitors in 1973 to a record 42.9 million in 2016. Convention attendance increased from 357,000 to more than 6.6 million. Las Vegas’ hotel room inventory grew from 29,000 to more than 150,000 at the end of 2024.

“Rossi's passion for everything Las Vegas was unparalleled,” Billy Vassiliadis, chairman of R&R Partners, said in a statement released by Ralenkotter’s family. “He was globally recognized as a leader in tourism and convention marketing, branding and sales. Much of what Vegas is today, No. 1 in conventions and sports capital of the world, was envisioned and launched by Rossi.”

In an interview with The Nevada Independent on Aug. 4 at Southern Highlands Golf Club in the community where he lived, Ralenkotter said he was proud to have played a role in guiding the growth of Las Vegas through the LVCVA, which he joined in 1973 when the agency was known as the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau. 

He grew the organization from “basically a sales team to a full-scale marketing operation” that helped grow Las Vegas visitation at the same time that legal gaming expanded across the U.S.

Working with R&R, Ralenkotter helped create the “What Happens Here, Stays Here” marketing campaign in 2003 that appeared for nearly two decades in national and international advertising. The slogan branded Las Vegas as a place that was more than just a gaming resort.

“We became successful as a destination because we mean so many things to so many people,” Ralenkotter said. “But when you put together a big diagram, [Las Vegas] is all about adult freedom and the ability to come here and have a good time. We want to take care of you as a customer, whether it’s for a convention, leisure travel, seeing a special event, whatever it is you want to do.”

He was also part of the team that helped Las Vegas land large special events, starting in 1985 with the National Finals Rodeo (NFR), which brought visitors to Las Vegas during December. Before NFR, tourism tanked in the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

The same year, he helped persuade numerous major conventions and trade shows, including the International Consumer Electronics Show, to move the annual event to Las Vegas, which propelled the community to become the No. 1 trade show destination in North America.

Ralenkotter helped establish the Las Vegas Bowl, an annual college football game now played at Allegiant Stadium. He was instrumental in the development of Cashman Field in 1983, which became home to the Triple-A Las Vegas Stars (now the Las Vegas Aviators). He also helped steer the naming rights agreement for Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin, which opened in 2019 for the Aviators.

His last public appearance came on Sept. 19 at Las Vegas Ballpark, when the Aviators handed out to fans 2,500 bobblehead dolls that depicted Ralenkotter wearing a Cincinnati Reds cap — his favorite Major League team — and a Stars jersey with the number 14 (to honor Reds player Pete Rose).

Sitting in a wheelchair and surrounded by family and friends, Ralenkotter was able to acknowledge the crowd and stood briefly along the first base line to watch his son-in-law, John Keating, throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“Rossi is a Las Vegas baseball icon. He has meant so much to professional baseball in Las Vegas and was so instrumental with our success,” Aviators President Don Logan said in a statement. 

Former American Gaming Association CEO Geoff Freeman, now CEO of U.S. Travel, said Ralenkotter “changed the game” for the tourism industry when he established a brand presence in international markets for Las Vegas.

“His audacious, data-driven marketing campaigns raised the bar for destinations around the globe,” Freeman said in a statement. “His warmth and kindness made him a trusted partner not just to his colleagues in Las Vegas, but to travel professionals from coast to coast.” 

Nevada Resort Association President Virginia Valentine said Ralenkotter helped lay the groundwork to bring professional sports to Las Vegas. 

“He championed the benefits of having a world-class stadium that could attract major events and drive additional visitation,” Valentine said. “Rossi Ralenkotter loved Las Vegas with every ounce of his being.”

Bringing market research into the equation 

Ralenkotter told The Indy that market research was at the center of everything he accomplished during his 45 years with the LVCVA. He said the organization had never explored market research, an area he studied as a business administration student at Arizona State University. He gained additional experience in the subject area while completing a master’s degree in business administration at UNLV.

That’s one of the reasons he was hired at the LVCVA.

“They were looking for a marketing research person to develop a marketing research department. The destination never had anything like that before,” Ralenkotter said. “There was no primary research or secondary research. I came in with the thought that all of our programs in the future are going to be driven by marketing research and the marketing data that we got from our customers.”

Ralenkotter, who grew up in Las Vegas and graduated from Bishop Gorman High School in 1965, approached convention bureau leadership about embarking on the first market research study, which is still updated annually 50 years later as the Las Vegas Visitor Profile.

“Everything that we were successful with and were able to deliver to the resort industry was backed up with research,” Ralenkotter said. “I felt at the time that all our programs in the future were going to be driven by marketing research and marketing data. We sent out a marketing bulletin, our first visitors study, to the casino owners so they could understand what we were doing.”

Ralenkotter said the goal was to provide the resort industry with the customer information they needed so hotel operators could fill rooms.

“That is the reason why Las Vegas is so successful as a destination,” Ralenkotter said.

At the time, Las Vegas “had very little in the way of convention facilities.” Today, several Strip resorts have multimillion-square-foot, multiuse convention centers. The LVCVA’s research department continues to help the resort industry understand the interests of its customers and visitation trends.

“We developed formulas for calculating visitor volume and the analysis of average daily room rates,” Ralenkotter said. 

Before his retirement, Ralenkotter put in place the plan to expand the Las Vegas Convention Center, which included the acquisition of the long-troubled Riviera Hotel and Casino. 

With the hotel-casino demolished, the LVCVA built the $1 billion West Hall, which opened in 2021 and added 1.4 million square feet of meeting and exhibition space and gave the convention center campus a location off the Strip. A renovation at the South Hall was followed by current expansions at the central and north halls.

“We did something that some cities don't do. We brought in our customers to get their input on the whole expansion because they were the ones who could tell us what was needed,” he said.

Current LVCVA CEO Steve Hill said his predecessor “helped shape Las Vegas into a premier global destination. We are deeply grateful for his commitment to our city, and we are honored to carry his vision forward.” 

‘Judged on the strength of what you accomplished’

Ralenkotter retired from the LVCVA in 2018 during an investigation into the mishandling of some $90,000 worth of Southwest Airlines gift cards. He used nearly $17,000 of the cards for personal travel, often with his wife, between 2012 and 2017, until the practice was discovered. 

He apologized and reimbursed the LVCVA for the cost of the cards and subsequently paid a $24,000 fine to the state ethics commission. Ralenkotter was indicted in 2020 on a felony charge for his misuse of the cards, eventually pleading no contest to a misdemeanor and paying a $1,000 fine to end involvement in the case.

Ralenkotter, in his interview with The Indy, said he made a mistake and apologized for the actions.

“I think that anybody in any career that lasted as long as mine should be judged on the strength of what you accomplished,” Ralenkotter said. “[The LVCVA is] a public entity. Our books [were] open, and if somebody wants to do an investigation, that’s fine. It was my mistake for not looking to see the source of the cards.” 

He added that the matter was just “a small part of my career.” Local political leaders and gaming executives agreed.

Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley said Ralenkotter “had the vision to expand the convention center … when people thought it would never work in Las Vegas.” Her predecessors, former Mayors Carolyn Goodman and Oscar Goodman, said in a joint statement that “no one worked harder” than Ralenkotter in growing the Las Vegas tourism market.

Ralenkotter was honored by the American Marketing Association with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993 and by the Nevada Commission of Tourism in 2013. In 2018, he was inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame. The Boy Scouts of America Las Vegas Council awarded Ralenkotter the Good Scout Award in 2017. He also received the President’s Award from the Nevada Broadcasters Association in 2018. 

Cancer diagnosis

Ralenkotter was first diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2009 and went through a multitude of treatments before his doctors, earlier this year, said there wasn’t much more they could do. 

However, Ralenkotter looked at the diagnosis as a baseball challenge. He was a four-year lettered athlete in baseball at Gorman, where, in 1964, he won the Southern Nevada high school batting championship with a .452 batting average. He was named the most valuable player on the Gorman team in 1965 and was selected to the league’s all-star teams in 1964 and 1965.

“I got up every morning and told myself I was going to get my four at-bats,” Ralenkotter said. “The support of my family has been the most important aspect of my life. So, yeah, it’s been a great ride.”

Ralenkotter and his wife, Mary Jo, met more than six decades ago at Gorman. They had been married and divorced from different people when they reconnected and married.

Ralenkotter was born in rural Kentucky and his family relocated to Las Vegas in the early 1960s. He often returned to Kentucky, never forgetting his roots. Because of the state’s proximity to Ohio, Ralenkotter became a devoted fan of the Reds.

Ralenkotter graduated from St. Joseph Grade School in 1961 before attending Gorman. Ralenkotter was a devoted member of the St. Viator Catholic Church, where his funeral services will be held at an unannounced date.