Las Vegas relies heavily on visitors traveling here to spend big eating, drinking, partying, gambling and going to shows and conventions to fuel the local economy.

And as a result, the region is prone to extreme ups and downs .

When people have money to burn, Las Vegas heats up, but when the national economy gets hit hard, Southern Nevada can end up on life support.

“When things are good, they’re really good; when things are bad, they’re really bad,” Bob Potts, then-deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2020 after the pandemic devastated the local economy .

Las Vegas’ unemployment rate was around 4 percent in early 2020. But in April 2020 — during the first full month of pandemic-related shutdowns, with the Strip a ghost

See Full Page