((Brian's Note: Crystal Zuelke is a producer for the Las Vegas News Bureau at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.. She also is a freelance reporter for Life and Style and OK magazines. She has nearly a decade of experience working as a news producer and was a colleague of Brian Allen's at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas. In her spare time, Crystal blogs at crystalz.wordpress.com and spends time with her husband and family and friends.))

 Each year, tourism is recognized for the enormous impact it has on our nation's economy. In true Las Vegas style, National Tourism Week was celebrated two weeks early and in a BIG way. Las Vegas tourism officials sent showgirls to five iconic cities across the country to promote NTW. In honor of this year's theme, "Discover Great American Traditions," the lovely ladies traveled to various attractions in Chicago, Denver, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. I was lucky enough to travel to Denver.

 Initially, I wasn't excited about traveling to Denver. It just didn't sound as exciting as Chicago or San Francisco or Seattle. But, it wasn't my choice since this trip was work-related. Also, I volunteered to go, so I took it in stride. Besides, I had never been to Denver, so this was a great opportunity to see the city.

 The itinerary was busy, and we had a lot of ground to cover in one day. On Wednesday, a photographer, two Las Vegas showgirls and I took off for Denver. Once there. we drove straight to our hotel in downtown to get rest for the following day. On Thursday, we would stop at various locations to give one lucky Colorado resident complimentary airfare to Las Vegas with a two night hotel stay, courtesy of Southwest Airlines! My colleagues would be doing the same in the other cities aforementioned.

 The girls were up bright and early Thursday morning in full showgirl costume; colorful headpieces, feather boas and beaded skirts. They turned heads in the hotel lobby. It was kind of funny to see people's reaction. We laughed and reminded ourselves that seeing a showgirl in Las Vegas was normal, but in Denver, not so much.

 Our first stop was the state capitol. It was rather quiet, but we did find a few people, who were thrilled to have their photos taken with the showgirls. I snapped shots with a polaroid camera and gave passersby a free photo with the showgirls. While I was expecting more excitement, I thought perhaps it was just a quiet day and we needed to move on to a location where there would be more people. So, we headed over to the LoDo District, where in a few hours, the Colorado Rockies would be playing the Chicago Cubs at Coors Stadium. No doubt there would be plenty of eager crowds. Boy was I in for the surprise of my life.

 When we arrived to the baseball field, there were several Denver police officers hanging out at a hot dog stand eating lunch. Perfect! They will love the showgirls, right? Wrong! I approached them and asked if they would like a photo with the girls. Some said no. Other ignored us altogether. The rest scrambled away as if they were afraid! Shocked, I tell you. In Las Vegas, people would eat up the opportunity to take a picture with showgirls. I realized I wasn't in Kansas, I mean Las Vegas, anymore.

 Sadly, the public wasn't much friendlier. I was a little disappointed, and so were the girls. We never expected so many people to turn us down or ignore us. Realizing there wasn't much we could do, we decided to make the best of our day, and we continued to hand out Las Vegas blinkie pins and photos with the girls. We even got dozens of people to sign up for a chance to win those tickets to Las Vegas.

 Along the way we stopped at Union Square and ended the afternoon at 16th Street Mall. The people there were much friendlier and excited to see Las Vegas showgirls! I felt better about what we were actually there to do when people asked who we were and what we were doing in Denver. At the end of the day, we drew the name of the winner, and he was very thrilled to plan his trip to Las Vegas.

 I came home a little discouraged about Denver, but it was also a valuable learning experience. You see, for me, Las Vegas is a great place to live. I have been here almost my entire life. I love this city! It's my home, and it hurt my feelings that Denverites didn't welcome us to their city. Las Vegas welcomed more than 39 million visitors in 2007 with open arms. People from across the world come to Vegas each year to shop, dine, golf, gamble and take advantage of the beautiful weather, entertainment and spas. That includes people from Denver, which is by the way, one of our key markets. So, what gives?

 No matter what the answer is, I know this... Las Vegas isn't the bad city it's made out to be. I know people love to call it "Sin City," but there are people who actually work in Las Vegas and raise their families here. We don't live in casinos and sell our soul to the devil. Las Vegas is what you make it. I choose to make it my home, and like the tens of thousands of locals employed in the tourism industry, we will continue to accept people all over the globe to our great city; even Denverites.

((Brian's Note: Crystal is a fantastic person and a good friend. She also married a good Midwestern boy from Omahs whose grandmother lives in Sioux Falls. As always, feel free to leave a comment below or send in an e-mail by clicking here.))