Las Vegas Is Ready For Its Coronavirus Comeback

Modern-day Las Vegas was built on a leap of faith, that in post-war America people would travel to gambling palaces built on empty desert. That faith, plus constant reinvention, has helped make Las Vegas one of the most visited cities in the world. Both faith and reinvention will be tested next week, as Las Vegas cautiously begins a phased re-opening after a ten-week shutdown due to the coronavirus.

How much has the city grown since its humble beginnings? In 2018, it had 42,116,800 visitors, including 5,833,670 international travelers. From 2014 through 2019, Las Vegas enjoyed six straight years hosting more than 40 million people. But the coronavirus has put an end to that run, as it has to any number of such streaks, from 98 straight years without cancelling a season at the Hollywood Bowl to Southwest Airline’s 174 consecutive quarters of paying dividends.

But Las Vegas, a city built on tourism, hospitality and entertainment, all devastated by the coronavirus, cannot afford to just write off 2020. Instead, as Canadian podcaster Mike Smyth and I discussed on May 29, the city is mounting a comeback that will officially start on June 4.

Bellagio, New York-New York, MGM Grand Las Vegas, The Signature, Wynn, Encore, Caesars Palace & Flamingo, the Cosmopolitan, the Golden Nugget, Sahara, Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch, Treasure Island, “The D” , Golden Gate Casino the Venetian and Palazzo are among the casino hotels that will re-open. Not every amenity will re-open in each hotel, while additional hotels will reopen “as demand grows.”

Can you still get into trouble (errh, have fun) in Las Vegas? Many bars and casinos will be open, as will attractions from the Fremont Street light show and zipline to the Mob Museum. Hotels, bars, restaurants, and other establishments plan rigorous cleaning, disinfection, limited crowds and social distancing to limit the spread of the virus. (To date, Nevada has reported 8,350 cases and 410 deaths.)

What’s not re-opening at this time are shows and concerts, nightclubs, day clubs and other hot spots. At the current phase, gatherings of up to 50 people only are allowed, so trade shows and conventions are up in the air as well How will Las Vegas bring people back, considering the state of air travel and the unavoidable fact that there is, at yet, no vaccine against COVID-19?

Pizzazz, deals, and, yes, attention to health protocols.

Downtown Las Vegas CEO Derek Stevens, owner of the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate Hotel & Casino launched a “Keep America Flying” promotion, offering 2,000 free one-way flights to Las Vegas from dozens of cities across the country. All 2,000 flights were gone within hours. Why? As Stevens put it, “We'd like you to stay at one of our hotels. But if you don't, that's all right too, because Las Vegas needs you. Our community needs you."

When tourists arrive in beautiful downtown Las Vegas, they will be greeted by a re-opened Fremont Street Experience. The pedestrian mall and light show is reopening on June 3. Leading up to the reopening, in classic Vegas style, the world’s largest single video screen, Viva Vision, will display a 144-hour countdown that will conclude when gaming operations restarts at 12:01 a.m. on June 4. Daredevils can also take a ride over Fremont Street on the SlotZilla zipline, reopening June 4. Robust cleaning procedures, including twice-daily disinfections, are promised as well.

Vegas.com is offering stays at the reopened Caesars Palace from $67 a night, Flamingo from $20. (Vegas in the summer is typically affordable.) The Vegas.com come-ons do seem a little odd. Bellagio, a very reasonable $85, is rated excellent (4.4/5), although ‘PPE provided’ and ‘reduced capacity’ seem like strange benefits to tout. New York New York gets a Very Good and starts at just $26 a night, also with PPE provided and reduced capacity.

One amenity that is returning when Vegas reopens is free parking. Long regarded as a birthright in Las Vegas by residents and visitors alike, in 2016 MGM made a much-disliked decision to start charging between $10 and $18 a day. Coronavirus appears to have killed it, at least temporarily, for two reasons. First, much of the first wave of potential visitors will be people driving from Southern California. Free parking could help persuade them to come. Second, drivers are leery of handing their keys to a valet. So as MGM puts it, “complimentary self-parking will be available for guests; valet parking will not be operational at this time.”

MGM Resorts, the largest casino hotel operator in Las Vegas, recently announced a seven-point safety plan. It includes screening, temperature checks, six-foot distancing protocols,and  mandatory masks for employees (“strongly encouraged” for guests in public areas.) HVAC controls will “provide as much outside air circulation as we can throughout our buildings and guest rooms with air filters that meet or exceed published standards.” The plan was preliminary to MGM’s phased opening of the Bellagio, New York-New York, MGM Grand Las Vegas and The Signature on June 4.

At the Wynn, the CEO sent a letter to previous guests that “we're able to finally do what drives us every day: create exceptional guest experiences.”

I certainly had a wonderful experience at the Wynn in March. But post-lockdown, with the specter of a COVID-19 recurrence lurking in the background, will a stay there be a shabby shadow of what it was?

Au contraire. “You will receive the full Las Vegas experience at Wynn from the moment you arrive. We plan to open both Wynn and Encore hotels, 16 restaurants, 6 bars and lounges, 3 shopping esplanades, 5 pools, 2 salons, the golf course and both Wynn and Encore casinos. In other words, Vegas just as you remember it.”

To ensure that, Wynn will do “absolutely everything to ensure the health and safety of our guests.” The resort will provide 300 hand sanitizer stations and complimentary guest face coverings. There will be “non-invasive thermal temperature scans” at all guest and employee entrances, and Wynn says that “no guest with a temperature of 100.4 or more will be allowed in the resort.”

This may prove a challenge. Turning paid guests away is traumatic for both traveler and hotel accountants. Meanwhile, temperatures in Las Vegas can easily break 100 degrees; high heat and exercise can raise body temperature.

So there are many questions. But Las Vegas’ can-do spirit leads this travel veteran to think that the city will find a way to bring back visitors.

For example, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, better known as The Mob Museum, is reopening May 31. Yes, it says it will have new public health protocols in effect, like temperature checks, wearing masks, and limitation to 1/3 capacity.

But the Mob Museum has also managed to combine sanitation with an appealing giveaway. For a limited time, each visitor will be presented with a complimentary bottle of FDA-approved 80 percent ethanol liquid hand sanitizer, produced in the Museum’s distillery where moonshine is brewed. Just don’t drink the sanitizer.