But the vaccine timeline could be a tricky one. An exclusive USA TODAY Network survey of health officials in all 50 states revealed a patchwork of preparations and different distribution plans that may mean wide variations in what the rollout looks like as it expands across the nation.
Asked how much of her staff’s time is being taken up with getting ready for COVID-19 vaccinations, Nevada Immunization Program Manager Shannon Bennett answered simply, “all of it.”
Vegas can’t slogan out of this one
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, travelers stopped flying. Plummeting casino revenues and visitor numbers forced tourism officials here to find a new way to draw people.
Part of the solution was a slogan: “What happens here, stays here.” The R&R Partners advertising campaign launched in 2002 aimed to make people feel comfortable again.
And it worked. When travelers began to plot their getaways, they looked to the glittering Las Vegas Strip – a place where you could forget your problems and responsibilities.
“It is reflective of Las Vegas as a place where I can come and escape my doldrums and escape the treadmill that’s my life,” R&R Partners CEO Billy Vassiliadis told the Las Vegas Sun in 2014.
But for most of the U.S. in 2020, COVID-19 made the classic Las Vegas vacation an impossibility, and no catch-phrase would bring it back.
‘A pent up need to celebrate something’
When the pandemic collapsed the visitor stream to Nevada, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and R&R Partners launched a new 30-second television spot that aimed to reflect a post-pandemic landscape.
The new campaign – called “Reimagined” – offered a toned-down glimpse of Las Vegas tourism, focusing on outdoor recreation and intimate settings. One shot showed a man and woman in a warm bar conversation, a glass of wine separating them. —
But as December ticks away, air travel to Las Vegas remains down by 50 percent.
“The longterm solution is the vaccine,” Vassiliadis told the USA TODAY Network Wednesday. ”As the vaccine goes beyond just health care workers and first responders and the public starts to get vaccinated, I think we’ll see an easing of the tension – an incremental growth in confidence and a sense of comfort.”
The Las Vegas pitchman is optimistic about what will happen in Nevada’s tourism markets when people start traveling again.
“Assuming the general public starts to get vaccinated in April,” Vassiliadis said, “there won’t be a recovery. There will be a boom in Vegas. In my regular life, I’ve either said it or heard it a hundred times: ‘Honey, we’ll celebrate my birthday next year when it’s OK,’ or ‘Honey, we’ll do our anniversary next year’ or ‘We’ll save up all the events we missed and have one big party.'”
Las Vegas is where they’ll go, he said.
“Vegas is a place where people come and celebrate special things,” Vassiliadis said. “Bachelorette parties, bachelor parties, anniversaries, the first time we met, whatever it may be. There’s a pent up need to celebrate something, and I think seeing the end of the pandemic will create cause and reason for recapturing the missed moments.”