Tourists crowd the Boulevard.

Traffic is backed up for miles on I-15 on weekends.

Gaming numbers are soaring.

It certainly seems that the city is back on track.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and additional supporting sponsors.

(Kipp Ortenburger) The drop was stunning.

In a matter of weeks, tourism in Las Vegas slumped to a fraction of normal as lockdowns to stop the spread of th ecoronavirus went into place.

Well, now more than a year after the resorts on the Strip reopened, things are a lot sunnier with new resorts opening, tourist and convention traffic returning and gaming numbers up.

Is the city in full recovery mode, or are there more challenges ahead?

Well, joining us to talk about the return of Las Vegas are Virginia Valentine, president of the Nevada Resort Association; Bryan Horwath, gaming and business reporter with the Las Vegas Sun, and Josh Swissman, founding partner of the Strategy Organization.

Well, thank you to our viewers so much for joining us for this episode of Nevada Week, and thank you so much for being here.

A very exciting time but maybe a little bit of a cautious time too, and that's what we want to get down.

Virginia, I want to start with you.

Maybe the most simple question that has maybe the most complex answer, is Vegas back?

(Virginia Valentine) Vegas is back, I would say, absolutely.

The activity on the Strip, anybody who's been down to the Strip and had an opportunity to see what happened with the visitation during Resorts World, I think all the indicators are positive at this point.

So Vegas is back.

-And Josh, you are the king of indicators here and crunching some data.

Let's look at what some of these main indicators are, and I want to start with one of the main ones.

Just in the news today, the day of recording, Nevada casinos recording the biggest winning for a month that the state has ever had, $1.23 billion of gaming winning.

I mean, that's one indicator.

What are some others we're seeing?

(Josh Swissman) That's a tremendous indicator, right?

That's how this city was originally built and still is a strong indicator today, but not the only one.

Visitation in total still remains down albeit, you know, not dramatic percentages compared to 2019 as a benchmark.

Airlift into the city still remains a bit challenged, and that's exacerbated if you look at international travel.

Good news, drive-in traffic is actually up and will be up substantially with this weekend's holidays and festivities that go along with it.

And of course the big one to talk about that probably looks the most different from what normal Las Vegas activity looks like is the convention and business segment.

That remains incredibly challenged at this point, but there are a lot of bright spots to talk about as well that show signs that it's coming back.

-I think our public might be interested because it seems incongruous.

You have gaming winnings that are so high, and some of these other indicators you mentioned are still on the low end comparatively if we were to look at where we are in 2019, and I know that's where a lot of the comparisons are going.

Why are we then having such big winnings?

Is it just maybe we're, you know, out of practice in doing some of our gaming so we're losing more or what'S the reason?

-I think there are a couple reasons there, right?

I think there is just a huge desire to travel in general, and people haven't had that opportunity for a long time, so you'll see more people coming to Vegas to gamble now perhaps than when things normalize or if you compare to 2019.

Keep in mind that increased gaming figure that you just quoted, Kipp, is without really any sort of international visitation which typically is a large contributor there.

So to me that means there's a lot of upside, perhaps on the international gaming revenue expectation front.

But on top of that, you also still have a number of entertainment options that remain closed or not available to people around the country whether that's, you know, entertainment or any other form of, you know, going to a concert or any other form of entertainment that people might enjoy.

So I think the gaming industry is getting an outsized share of folks' wallets right now.

I expect that to probably correct a little bit, but certainly not enough to take away from the steady and tremendous growth that we're seeing in the gaming space.

-If I might add to that, Kipp.

-Yes, please.

-It's only since really June 1 that everything has been able to be 100% open.

So all of these entertainment venues are just starting to open this month.

I think to Josh's point, there are going to now be a broader array of options that are available I think to guests, and I think that's really important.

So there's been a lag in entertainment; the live entertainment tax was down to almost nothing during closure.

Some of the restaurants and the retail are still coming back, and of course some of those businesses are challenged with getting employees back, right?

So there has been a number of resorts holding job fairs and doing other things to try to encourage employees to come back.

But there are some stories anecdotal about restaurants who are limited in their capacity, not by COVID restrictions but by their ability to staff at a level that will make a good guest experience.

-Right.

The employee part, the jobs part of this is so important.

We'll get to that in just a sec.

Bryan, I want to bring you in the conversation.

One of the stories that you wrote in May prior to Memorial Day was "10 Indicators "of Are We Back or Are We Not?"

and a lot of what we've talked about was on your list.

Fast-forward now to coming up on July 4, another big holiday, where are we at?

I mean those 10 indicators, you know, what are you hearing?

What are industry experts telling you?

(Bryan Horwath) Well, I don't think there's any way that you can't be encouraged from what we're seeing right now in Las Vegas.

There's certainly, you know, like Josh said there's certainly some indicators that are lagging a little bit for obvious reasons, international travel, conventions, that midweek hotel occupancy.

Weekend occupancy is pretty close to what it was pre-pandemic, you know, but conventions kind of really help drive that midweek.

But all things considered, I think there's a lot of positives.

I think people that I talk to are really excited about the Fourth of July weekend, and the rest of the summer.

You know, certainly there's some concerts coming up at Allegiant Stadium which by and large, people haven't really been able to see yet the $2 billion new stadium that we have here in Las Vegas.

So, you know, I think there's a lot of things to be excited about.

-And that's a great point.

Josh, I want to go to you.

The excitement, and a good transition to exactly who are we seeing that is coming to Las Vegas right now?

We saw during COVID that some of our local casinos didn't take as big of a hit.

I don't want to assume that's where we're getting a lot of our business now, but do we have an idea of how many are actually local to Southern Nevada that are doing say a lot of the gaming and even enjoying some of our hotels versus, you know, regional travel here?

-We sure do and this-- you know, I'll go back to the gaming figures.

This trend has actually been prevalent for a handful of months now.

If you look at just sort of the local segment within those gaming figures, you look at the balance of Clark County for instance and you look at the Boulder Strip as the two probably biggest sets of figures, they've been up compared to 2019 for months and months now.

And in fact in May when we had this amazing record-breaking month, they were up north of 20% if memory serves, and to me that just shows that not only is tourism and visitation really starting to bounce back, but there's some strong resiliency in the local market as well.

-Virginia, let's talk a little bit about some of the casinos that haven't opened.

Again, these are some of our more local off-Strip casinos here.

We have a handful of them that have yet to open.

Can you give us some status on maybe why that is?

-Well, I think there are probably a variety of reasons.

One of them is returning people to work and being able to staff and employ them.

I think others are trying to put their focus on some of their better performing properties.

You know, some may be taking an opportunity to make other changes in the facility.

So I think there are a number of reasons for that, and I think we will see them opening here in the future, but I think a little bit of it is a wait and see on how strong the demand is.

-And as you said, we're looking and projecting to have many months of increased revenue which then might help to open those casinos.

Josh, I want to go to you and talk a little bit about maybe we can segment this to Downtown and talk about Downtown as a case study.

We had Circa open in October so we've, you know, had a little bit of a lead-up there.

Of course that was during or still in our restricted phase.

We've seen a lot of pictures of activity on Fremont Street again.

But let's talk about a hotel opening there like the Circa and what that has done for an area like Downtown specifically.

-I mean, you talk about a shot in the arm for that part of the city, that was it.

In all its 777-room glory, Circa was an amazing addition to what was already a pretty thriving part of the city.

The great thing I think about Circa is that not only will it bring the normal sort of Downtown crowd out in greater numbers, but Circa is a big enough deal in my mind and an amazing enough resort that it actually will probably bring some people from the Strip to travel Downtown either just to check out Fremont Street for a night or perhaps even to stay there and experience all the great things Derek Stevens has built into that place.

-And we see so much more of an interest in sports gambling in general, and of course that is the main focus of the Circa.

I mean, how much attention is that going to put on that resort just because of that aspect?

-I mean, well, it's got what could be one of the most amazing sports books in the world inside and you couple that with the pool outdoor experience which was built around watching sports outside.

I don't know how-- if you're a sports fan, I don't know how you don't make it to Circa to check that out on a Sunday to watch a game or anytime really to see what's been built there, which is truly a huge homage to sports in general.

-Bryan, also Virgin, another hotel that is new-- refurbished, but new.

Let's talk a bit about that hotel there too.

By bringing more business to off-Strip and a lot more focus on service with that hotel itself.

-Yes, a lot of amenities there.

A lot of restaurants, a lot of things to do.

You know, it'll be interesting to see as we progress here how well Virgin does because it is a little bit off the Strip and if you're taking a vacation to the Strip, you have to wander off a little bit, and it's a different product than the old Hard Rock was.

You know, it's branded differently.

But I think a lot of people are watching to see how that property does, and I think so far probably some mixed results which obviously, you know, we just had the restrictions lifted.

So we'll see what happens there, but I think a lot of people have their eyes on Virgin to see how well it does in the coming months.

-And I want to talk to you specifically about what you're hearing about this July 4 weekend coming up.

Josh has already referenced it as being a big weekend.

I know he's more bullish on where we're at.

Let's talk more about long-term indicators.

I mean, if we have a really good weekend on July 4, what are industry experts telling you that means for the future, summer and beyond?

-Well, I think people expect it to be a very big weekend.

I don't think there's a lot of question about that, and I think that's going to kind of help carry this recovery forward into the summer and into the fall.

And I think right now really it's just kind of more about-- we talked about a couple pieces, the international travel and the conventions, it's going to take a little time for those to come back.

We're going to have to be a little bit patient with that, you know.

That's certainly what people are saying.

But I think if we can build some momentum, if Las Vegas can build some momentum continuing here, you know, I think it's going to bode well for the city.

I think people are-- you know, I was talking to a local lawmaker just recently and this person said well, things are looking up, but we're still watching the virus.

We're still watching the positivity rates because that's a fluid situation.

You know, we've seen some things lately where things are spiking a little bit.

So I think people are still watching now.

You know, we see when you go down to the Strip when you go Downtown, people are going down there.

It doesn't look like we're in a pandemic at all, you know, it looks like that's long past.

But I think people are still keeping their eye on it, so I think there's-- I think there's just a lot of cautious optimism right now.

-Yes.

Please, Josh, go ahead.

-So if I could, I think a few of the leading indicators I look at to help, you know, figure out what Bryan's talking about, our midweek room rates-- and this all revolves around conventions for the most part because that's the biggest segment that has yet to return outside of international travel.

Midweek room rates even well into the future, it's pretty easy to see that there is still some demand lacking during that time period.

The ability to yield those room rates up over a period of time, particularly again midweek is an important indicator.

These hotel operators and resort operators are experts at really getting as much profit out of those rooms as possible.

A lot of that has to do with yielding of the room rates and if that's not happening, that shows there's not that respective demand that far out in the future.

The other one that's really telling is the citywide convention schedule of course because that shows what's to come in terms of visitation volume for that sorely missed business segment.

-Yes, very important.

We'll talk about conventions in just a second.

I want to talk about Resorts World and potentially how that factors into recovery.

Eight years after it bought the site, Genting Group finally opened its long-awaited project on the north end of the Strip, and a lot of hope is riding on Resorts World Las Vegas.

Nevada Week's team visited the new resort last week.

Let's take a look at that.

With the cutting of a ribbon comes the opening of the first ground-up megaresort to be built on the Las Vegas Strip in 11 years.

Resorts World opened during a challenging time for the Las Vegas valley.

The city is slowly emerging from the global COVID pandemic and is working to rebuild an economy damaged by lockdowns and capacity limits.

Those behind the new hotel-casino say its opening signifies that Las Vegas is back to business.

(Gary Steffen) I think we're seeing Las Vegas as one of the top two destinations being searched, so travel is back.

The economy of Las Vegas has certainly rebounded rather quickly.

Resorts World is a unique partnership between Hilton Hotels, which is featuring three of its hotel brands within the resort, and the Genting Group, a company based in Malaysia.

The massive complex features 66 floors, 3,500 hotel rooms, 1,400 slot machines and 117 table games plus a 30-table poker room.

A nightclub opens later this summer and a 5,000-seat theater, which boasts the largest stage in Las Vegas, opens this fall.

Resorts World was constructed on the site where the legendary Stardust once stood.

(sounds of an explosion) The resort's design has modern Asian influences and honors old Las Vegas as well.

(Kara Siffermann) What we've done is we've paid homage to old Vegas and provided this wonderful new environment for these old or vintage, I like to say, elements, but we've also paid homage to our wonderful brand partners, Hilton.

It's not just the design of the hotel and casino that looks different.

Resorts World also offers a unique twist on one of its restaurant spaces.

The Famous Foods area is a trendy take on a food hall.

Las Vegas native chef James Trees is thrilled that his new stall is surrounded by other great chefs.

(James Trees) So what you have is you have Michelin star winners and Bib Gourmand and James Beard nominees like me kind of all together in this really great kind of like hawker-style food setting.

This is something that hasn't really been tried here in Vegas with these kinds of concepts.

Overall there are more than 40 different places to grab a bite at Resorts World from fine dining to quick service.

The resort is also pushing a new concept on the gaming floor.

It's employing state-of-the-art gaming technology including new cashless gaming options for the players.

New integrated technology is also being used to make restaurant reservations, pool cabana bookings, get show tickets and more.

Chef Trees says the new resort is a symbol of how Las Vegas can always rebound.

And I know every single time we get challenged, we come up and we do something that makes it even better, even more special, more innovative.

For Nevada Week, I'm Natalie Cullen.

Thank you, Natalie, we appreciate it, and where do you start with this resort, right?

I mean it's huge, the technology.

I mean, the artwork; I mean, everything.

Virginia, a resort like this that's new on the Strip, I mean, how does this factor into long-term recovery, and let's transition the conversation to that.

How big of a factor is this?

-I think this is a big factor because this resort is an attraction in and of itself, and I think you saw that with-- I think I read in the paper something like 20,000 visitors to the opening, and that's pretty amazing.

So I think when you add to that this database they have that comes with this partnership with Hilton, which I have no idea-- you may know, Josh, how many hundreds of thousands of people are Hilton Honors members, but now they've got this database of people who are familiar with their brand.

They've introduced a big gaming component to a very luxurious property, and I think the attraction also will play well with international visitors.

So I think it's really important.

I mean, you mentioned that they've gone a little bit different way with the restaurants.

The art is really fun and upbeat and is an attraction in and of itself.

So I think-- and lastly I'll just add to that, the energy this will create now with the new Las Vegas visitor convention facilities and the north end of the Strip also, I think it just really reenergizes that area.

So I do think it's very additive I think to what we're doing here already.

-Josh, let's get your perspective too.

First off that north end of the Strip, what this does, how much impact that is and then being part of this larger Hilton bubble, how important that is to a resort like this.

-Sure.

Well, this is I think finally the sort of renaissance that the north end of the Strip deserves, right?

It's gone through so many fits and starts throughout the years, and I think it's safe to say now that with this $4.3 billion property, which is an amazing property run by an amazing group of operators, that the north end of the Strip has finally planted its flag in the ground and will really draw a lot of that guest and visitor volume down to that end of the Strip.

And I think that bodes well for everybody that's on that end of the Strip, and I think it bodes well for future development on that end of the Strip as well.

-Future development and as Virginia mentioned also that the convention side of this too is very important.

Bryan, I want to go to you.

Let's talk more specifically about conventions.

We had World of Concrete a couple weeks ago.

The country saw this as a bellwether to see where conventions were going to be, and again I come back to some of your contacts and what industry experts are saying here.

I mean, optimistic or pessimistic for the future of conventions here in the city based on that conference?

-I think people are optimistic.

But I think, you know, they're saying we're going to have to be patient.

It's going to take a little bit of time.

One interesting thing one resort executive was telling me recently was, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how companies come back in this new post-pandemic atmosphere whereas maybe in the past they would have sent 12, 14, whatever the number might be people to a convention, you know, maybe for a while, for the time being, maybe they send eight or six or whatever it might be.

So I think there's still some caution out there but, you know, you talk to people, I've talked to multiple people who say look, our bookings look really promising.

When you start to look at the end of 2021 into next year, long term, you know, people are booking.

So I think we had this-- there was this idea that some had that well, conventions, that whole idea of a lot of people gathering after the pandemic, those types of things are going to go away.

People are going to be scared to be around people.

I think we're going to get over that.

It seems like people are going to want to gather.

They're going to want to go back to these conventions.

I think it might be a little different.

We'll have to see.

You know, I don't think anyone knows for sure, but I think there's a lot of optimism there and people are looking at, like I said, the last half of this year into next year and beyond it.

I think there's a lot of optimism, there's a lot of bookings that are happening.

-And Virginia, bookings are good, that's great.

I want to get your perspective on where you think conventions are going to go so first off, let's talk about that.

-Well, I would agree with Bryan.

I think we're very optimistic.

I don't think you can on a Zoom meeting touch and feel and see the products that people are selling, and I would argue that other businesses are recovering too.

There's probably nothing more important right now to them than getting their products in front of people, and if you're on the buying end of that, actually seeing, feeling and touching those.

So it's going to take some time, those industries, other industries are recovering, too.

They may have limitations on their travel budget, but I think during World of Concrete, there was an opportunity there for a lot of people to see this amazing new convention facility.

I believe they have exhibit space in the LVCVA Convention Center now that is maybe the largest square-foot area without piles in it, without columns.

So you have this amazing giant, very flexible uninterrupted space, a new facility.

I mean, if you were going to hold a meeting, a convention or trade show, where else would you want to be except this brand-new facility with all these, you know, amazing hotel rooms around it?

-And I would just add to that.

You know, another attraction with the revamped and expanded convention center is that Boring tunnel, the people mover.

I think that's going to be kind of an attraction in itself where people are going to be excited about not only going to a convention in Vegas, seeing a new convention space, that's great but also, you know, riding this underground tunnel.

You know, I've been in it.

It's pretty cool.

It's neat.

It's something that you don't do every day and, you know, we might even see, you know, there's talks, there's still hurdles, but there's a lot of talk about that system going around the resort corridor as well in the coming years.

-Yes, and it's so important.

I mean, those toys and bells and whistles, my own circle of friends, people want to come to Las Vegas just to ride Boring, you know, so very important.

Josh, we've got about a minute left, and I want to come to you.

Let's talk about the convention business and how important that is.

We already mentioned the midweek as being one of the big pieces, but take maybe a business customer and a leisure customer and why is the business customer so important to recovery of Las Vegas?

-Sure.

And I think in a sentence, they fill in the gaps that are existing right now.

They fill in those midweek occupancy gaps.

They fill in those entertainment and food and beverage gaps we're experiencing right now.

-Very important.

Very, very important to the conversation.

Well, thank you so much.

We really appreciate having you.

And thank you, as always for joining us this week on Nevada Week.

Now, for resources that have been discussed on the show, please visit our website at vegaspbs.org/nevada-week.

You can also find us on social media at @nevadaweek.

Thanks again, and we'll see you next week.

♪♪♪