Swot of Circus Circus

Strengths

• Circus is one of the major players in the Las Vegas, Laughlin, and Reno markets in terms of square footage of casino space and number of hotel rooms.

• Each Circus location has a distinctive personality. Circus Circus has the theme of a circus, Luxor’s theme is an Egyptian Pyramid, and Excalibur’s theme is Medieval.

• Excalibur is one of the first sights travelers see as they exit interstate highway 15.

• Circus’ combined hotel room occupancy rates have remained above 90% due, in part, to low room rates ($45 to $69 at Circus Circus Las Vegas) and popular buffets. “Circus buffet is the busiest buffet in the world” (http://www.scripophily.net/cicieninne19.html) it was renovated in 1998 and since then it has served over 8,000 customers per day.

• Circus has an aggressive growth strategy and a corporate structure designed to enhance that growth. Also it has a strong cash position; and was able to build Excalibur with internal generated funds.

Weakness

• Circus has heavily invested in renovating the casinos.

• Drop in earnings because of disruption of services due to renovations of existing facilities.

• Three properties were purchased in 1995 and located in Jean and Henderson, Nevada but each one has limited hotel space (1116 rooms’ total) and depends heavily on 1-15 traffic. The Railroad Pass is considered a local casino and is dependent on Henderson residents as its market.

• Tunica Mississippi property was opened in 1994 on 24 acres of land. In 1997, operating income declined by more than 50% due to the increase in competition and lack of hotel rooms. Since it didn’t have enough rooms, Circus decided to add 1,200 rooms which cost $119.8 million.

Opportunities

• Improve