The $1 billion property -- which boasts Vegas' first sand-and-surf beach, with 6-foot artificial waves -- ladles out the savoir-faire with Broadway's Tony Award-winning musical Chicago, opening Wednesday in a new 1,700-seat showroom. And on April 10, a performance by tenor Luciano Pavarotti christens a 12,000-seat sports and entertainment complex.

But by all accounts, this is a year of reckoning for Sin City, which faces twin challenges: building more hotel rooms than can possibly be filled any time soon -- tourism growth, now flat, would have to reach 6% -- and reinventing itself as a destination for high-culture clientele.

"This is a tough year, and the market has been expecting it," says Robin Farley, gaming industry analyst for BT Alex. Brown.

A whole slew of high-end properties is coming on line, all planned back when the local economy was far more robust. Last fall there was the art-studded Bellagio. On April 14, the $1.5 billion Venetian all-suite resort opens with reproductions of the Doges' Palace, St. Mark's Square and the Grand Canal. And in the fall, Hilton introduces its slightly less luxe Paris-Las Vegas Casino Resort, with a 50-story replica of the Eiffel Tower.

This year alone, the city will see 12,500 new rooms, nearly as many as the total in Milwaukee. That will give Vegas 121,000.

Still, in the wake of the much-ballyhooed Bellagio opening in October, visitorship jumped 6.7% in December. That's a ripple effect that development proponents hope will echo with each new unveiling. And they note, with relief, that no major new resorts are planned past 1999.

"We've seen the bottom here," Farley says, "and now the market is looking forward 12 months from now. And the outlook is much more positive."