So how should rural Nevada prepare for international guests?

That topic and several others of interest to small-town Nevada were showcased last week in Rural Roundup, the 17th-annual conference sponsored by the Nevada Commission on Tourism.

The commission offers Rural Roundup in various locations throughout the state, and the most recent edition was conducted in Primm.

Sessions were offered on how to get the most out of Internet marketing, the value of branding and capitalizing on scenic roadways.

Retired Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority international travel expert Cam Usher headed a break-out session on welcoming the international visitor.

"While international visitors love Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, they're fascinated by the lifestyle of the Old West," Usher said. "They like the ranching, the mining, the farming, the historic hotels and brothels, the rodeos and the life of the Pony Express era."

The LVCVA and the NCOT have promoted familiarization trips for foreign travel agents and journalists who have written newspaper and magazine articles about places less traveled.

Those stories and popular culture - movies and television shows - draw thousands of tourists who want to sample the lifestyle of the Old West.

Visitors from foreign lands are broken down into internationals, which include visits from neighboring countries of Canada and Mexico, and overseas arrivals, which fly across the ocean to get here.

Between 2001 and 2005, tourists from the United Kingdom have surpassed the Japanese as the country of origin of the most overseas visitors.

The most international visitors come from Canada and in 2005, the latest statistics available from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Canadians came the closest to overtaking the number of all overseas visitors with the total number of overseas visitors coming in at 1.778 million guests compared with 1.774 million Canadians.

In 2005, the United Kingdom accounted for 439,000 visitors, followed by Japan, 190,000; France, 119,000; Australia, 115,000; South Korea, 112,000; Germany, 106,000; and all other overseas destinations, 697,000. Tourists from Mexico who arrived by air accounted for 390,000 visitors.

Usher said international visitors are desirable because they outspend their domestic counterparts and stay longer when they travel.

On average, most overseas travelers spend 18.8 nights on their trips and spend $120 a day, not including what they prepaid for lodging in package deals.

Usher offered several do's and don'ts for rural tourism enterprises dealing with international visitors. They're worth noting for urban companies as well:

In other news:

Allegiant in Reno: The executives of Allegiant Air have found a market opening that apparently promises profits for the Las Vegas-based company.

Starting May 25, Allegiant will fly three days a week between Bellingham, Wash., and Reno, the company announced.

Spokeswoman Tyri Squyres said there aren't any other immediate plans for Reno. The Bellingham flights are the first scheduled service for the airline at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

Don't look for Allegiant to try any Las Vegas-Reno flying anytime soon. Southwest Airlines dominates the route and US Airways and its commuter partners have a couple of flights a day. Allegiant is focused more on the leisure traveler and not the business fliers that regularly fill Southwest planes (especially when the Nevada Legislature is in session).

Beijing flight: United Airlines inaugurated its capital-to-capital service between the United States and China last week with the first nonstop flights linking Washington, D.C., with Beijing.

United is using the biggest plane in its fleet - a 347-seat Boeing 747-400 - on the route.

The U.S. Department of Transportation approved the route last year and will open the next round of competition for another route in the weeks ahead.

So far, no airline has taken a chance on filing for a nonstop between Las Vegas and a Chinese city although the market now appears right for one.

Three blind mice: Family Focus, a New York-based antigaming organization led by evangelical and Pentecostal ministers, has resorted to name-calling campaign that is eroding what little public credibility it had developed.

The Rev. Gary Kellner's campaign now refers to the state Gaming Control Board as "three blind mice" for its recommendation to allow Pansy Ho to partner with MGM Mirage on its $1.1 billion hotel-casino project in Macau.

Kellner likes to dish out second-hand media reports and develop conspiracy theories about Ho's father, Stanley, who held a gaming monopoly in Macau until the Chinese government invited competitors to the market. When asked who is financing his campaign (a few theories about that have been making the rounds), Kellner said he doesn't take money from anyone.

Kellner, who said he can't understand how a successful businesswoman in her 40s can be independent of her father, said he's now counting on New Jersey regulators to block the Ho deal with MGM Mirage.

In the meantime, he seems content at taking potshots at Nevada's regulators in his frequent e-mail blasts.