John Locher / AP
In this Sept. 21, 2018, file photo, the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino reflects the last sunlight of the day along the Las Vegas Strip.
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 | 6 p.m.
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Southern Nevada tourism officials are closely tracking the spread of the coronavirus, but there have been no reports to date of major business disruptions in Las Vegas related to the illness, which has rattled financial markets and temporarily shuttered casinos overseas.
State health officials, meanwhile, said they were prepared to combat the virus, which originated in China and has infected more than 80,000 people worldwide, including about 60 in the United States. So far, no cases have been reported in Nevada.
“We’re in contact with different agencies and with our hotel partners, and we’re ready,” said Misty Robinson, senior public health preparedness planner for the Southern Nevada Health District. “Since we’re a place that has a large visitor population, we’re lucky that we haven’t had any cases.”
The extent to which the virus is impacting tourism in the U.S. since it was first identified in December has not come into full focus.
The U.S. Travel Association is scheduled to release January travel numbers on Tuesday. “Since it will capture January data, it will be the beginning of what, if any, impact we’re seeing on the U.S. due to coronavirus,” said Cathy Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the association.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is expected to release January visitation and room occupancy numbers on Friday.
“In all of Asia, travel is grinding to a virtual standstill,” said Jason Ader, co-founder of New York-based SpringOwl Asset Management and a former Las Vegas Sands board member. “It’s a serious matter for any gaming company. It’s not a permanent situation, but if I were a CEO or a CFO of a large gaming company now, how could I make any predictions? We just don’t know how this will play out, and that’s the challenge. It’s difficult now to predict 2020.”
In 2018, Las Vegas welcomed nearly 237,000 visitors from China, the fifth-most of any foreign country, according to the LVCVA. The top four were Canada, about 1.6 million; Mexico, 1.1 million; the United Kingdom, 737,000; and Australia, 370,000.
During an earnings call this week, Caesars Entertainment CEO Tony Rodio said the company’s businesses had not yet been affected by the outbreak.
“Our bigger concern going forward, depending upon which way this coronavirus goes, is if we start to see cancellations of domestic travel to Las Vegas for the fear of interacting with Asian clientele,” Rodio said. “We have not seen that to date.”
The virus, however, has battered financial markets in general.
Stocks plunged for the sixth consecutive day Thursday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down close to 1,200 points. With one day of trading left, this week has been the worst for Wall Street since the Great Recession over a decade ago.
Spokespeople for Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts did not comment about how the virus was impacting business on the Strip. But all three Las Vegas-based casino operators have resorts in Macau, where the government earlier this month ordered all casinos shut down for two weeks to help control spread of the virus.
Wynn Resorts said the closure cost it about $2.6 million a day.
Vit Kraushaar, a medical investigator with the Southern Nevada Health District, said such a blanket shutdown in Las Vegas would be improbable.
“I never want to say never, but I think it’s very unlikely that something like shutting down the Strip would happen,” he said.
In a statement, the LVCVA said it was monitoring the coronavirus situation with its resort partners and that “the safety and health of our employees and guests remains of utmost priority.”
The tourism group noted that no travel restrictions have been imposed and it was committed to following any protocols or guidance issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Health District.
Nevada Resort Association spokeswoman Dawn Christensen issued a similar statement, saying the organization would remain in contact with health agencies.
“Ensuring a safe and secure experience is our top priority, which is why the resort industry works closely with federal, state and local authorities on wide-ranging preparedness measures to safeguard employees and guests,” the statement said.
Kraushaar said that given the number of cases across the globe, “it’s very likely we’ll see a coronavirus case here. I’m less worried about having a traveler come here than I am about seeing community spread. It’s likely we’ll see that at some point.”
“I think there’s a lot of fear now because this is a new virus and it feels like we’ve never dealt with anything like it before, but we deal with fairly similar situations every year with influenza,” Kraushaar said.
At McCarran International Airport, which doesn’t have direct China flights, it was “business as usual,” spokesman Joseph Rajchel said, although a number of travelers were spotted Thursday wearing surgical masks, a common practice in East Asian countries.
“There have been no flight schedule changes and, at this time, we have not been advised by the CDC or the Southern Nevada Health District of the need for any special measures at the airport,” Rajchel said.
Numbers released Thursday showed more than 4.1 million passengers — mostly domestic travelers — passed through McCarran in January, a 6.6% increase over the same month in 2019.
Kraushaar said the CDC recommends “to prepare for the worst, but hope the worst never happens. We see what’s happening in the rest of the world, so now’s the time to prepare.”
