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Okay, Las Vegas checklist...Area 15, Sphere, Bellagio Fountains, Gondola Rides at the Venetian...
...High Roller, Mermaids, the beach club, Wynn, the MGM Lion...
Luxor, Eiffel Tower, indoor ski slopes, Harry Potter World, Disneyland....wait...
Photos: Dubai Tourism Board
Why am I in such a hurry to get these programs up and running?
THE UAE - PART 1
When I say we are behind, look no further than the UAE. You might have mistaken the above photos for Vegas, but they're not (for the most part).
What if I told you they have everything Vegas does and more... Harry Potter World, Disneyland (opening in 2028), a 156 story mall (with luxury retailers), 20+ theme parks, and 15+ sports training camps (both amateur and professional). It's also surrounded by water, offering jet ski rental, wakeboarding, parasailing, snorkeling, paddleboarding, flyboarding, water based experiential installations, water parks and more. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg regarding what they offer, and food is a whole other realm. Keep in mind, all of this is an area 1/4 the size of Clark County.
The UAE had a record tourism year in 2025 - tourism was up by 5%.
A report on the D33 credited experiences and tech as their main reasons
They officially passed Las Vegas in room inventory.
Room Capacity continued to grow, until February of 2026. Emirates airlines slashed 90% of it's flights until mid-September, when it restored 95%. Current traffic is back to pre-conflict numbers.
To combat the slump, Dubai invested AED2.5 billion (680,642,500 USD) to help entertainment and tourism sectors. Dubai Invite offers $800 to tourists until October 31st.
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The most concerning statistics
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Sightseeing across the state fell by -19.8% Travel Nevada
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State parks are currently seeing losses almost across the board
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Great Basin is down 27%
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Death Valley is down 20%
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Grand Canyon in down 13%
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Hoover Dam is down 7%
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The only park in the plus column is Yosemite
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Nevada State Park Visitor Statistics 2024-2026
Why Las Vegas Tourism is a state wide issue
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Las Vegas is responsible for over 40% of the regional economy
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Vegas tourism was down by 8% in 2025.
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That translates to a loss of over $4 billion dollars for the Nevada General
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Funding goes toward K-12 education, NSHE, Public Works, etc.
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The convention sector lessened the overall impact to the economy (with 6 million attendees total) Growth there plateaued between 2023 to 2025, but have started to pick up.
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Visitor Statistics
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The visitors who did come had different spending habits
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Paid attractions were up almost 19%
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Sports were up $10 per person
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Shopping was down at -21%
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Casinos have been targeting higher income gamblers
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Fewer mid to low income guests means less business overall
- Tough on gig workers
- Established Casino Entertainment Offering Continue to Close
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Graph from Travel Nevada
"All of our eggs in one basket"
The state is disproportionately dependent on one city. With some small investments, we can help build infrastructure for not only Las Vegas, but the state at large, with a focus on entertainment.
Comparing our tourism offerings to the UAE , this should be an immediate concern. My proposals are structured to be able to pivot to other industries once the entertainment plans are up and running.
The experts weigh in
LVCVA Board of Directors commission a yearly tourism report from Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas based research firm. One of the Principals at the firm, Jeremy Aguero, stressed areas of concern to the board. Things to note from his presentation:
“We’re still more reliant on our tourism industry than any other market depends on any other industry our size in the United States today.”
and
"We know consumers are increasingly value oriented, not just in terms of their travel decisions, but in terms of everything, Consumers are feeling squeezed a bit and we’re seeing the impact associated with that. People aren’t going to stop traveling. They’re going to look for ways to do it and get value out of it."
Oh, Canda
International traveler numbers are down, and specifically, Canadians. Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting Senior Director Joel Van Over told Vegas tourism officials the number of seats on flights from Canada have gone down by 200,00 due to political and economic concerns.
He stated, "Canadians have started to shy away from the United States. If you’re Canadian and doing business in the United States, you continue to travel, but if you have a choice, discretionary or leisure, you may decide to go elsewhere. "
In fact, I believe they already are going elsewhere.
SOCIAL MEDIA (A precursor to a discussion about DARK PR)
The issue boils down to travelers getting value for what they pay for.
Content creators have complained about resort and parking fees since
they started more than 10 years ago.
Other locations began adding their own fees. Influencers took notice, and Vegas
became the place where a fee could spring out of nowhere.
This was not a great look, since people were already tired of paying fees
just to survive at home.
However, the narrative turned firmly against Vegas in what I'm going to refer to as
"Plate Gate Trilogy".
MGM "Broke the Internet"
The line in the sand was drawn in May, 2025.
MGM resorts began adding "classic service fees" ON TOP of their room service fees.
What did it include? Dinnerware and silverware.
For $25.
Not to keep as a souvenir. Just normal plates and forks to eat your
food with that get washed and used again.
But, they did give you the alternative of doing your order "take out" style,
in to go containers and disposable silverware. It was the standard room service charges...
Plus $10.
Via Casino.org
Who doesn't love a viral video?
In my opinion, the internet went nuts...in a way I had never seen before. Wave after wave of content
popped up everywhere I looked. See? Vegas is so expensive. Look, MGM is charging $26 for an in room
bottle of water. What this lady paid for a Starbucks, and it was half of what she paid for her room!
While on an investor call, Bill Hornbuckle (the CEO of MGM Resorts International) said, "We lost control
of the narrative over the summer … whether it was the infamous bottle of water or a Starbucks coffee of
Excalibur that cost $12, shame on us". (They felt so much shame they reduced the fee to $10.)
Would you call this Exaggerating Vulnerabilities? Amplifying real-world missteps, public relations blunders, or temporary financial struggles to make them look catastrophic...
They for sure lost control of the narrative. But the way it played out was odd. Instead of tapering off like the normal trending topic cycles creators use, it just abruptly stopped. It's almost like it was making way for...
"Vegas is Dead".
The trend for this was the report that tourism numbers were down, but I'm not sure I have ever met an influencer who pays attention to tourism reports. Regardless of how it started, it seemed to catch traction.
The videos and their messaging got so prevents, several news outlets covered it. Vegas creators also got online to debunk it. But, if they aren't the ones who created it in the first place, who did?
I researched some videos (mostly slop) and it almost seemed like an anti- marketing campaign, right? Hey, did you hear Luxor is closing?
(It's not.) It was the first in a wave of misinformation about how so many Vegas casinos were closing and how greedy casinos were laying off employees without a care in the world, while the people in charge stand by watching...while ALL of the casinos also seem to be closing?
Does this seem like calling our Integrity & Leadership into question? Is it insinuating or falsely claiming that a rival’s executives or business practices are dishonest, unethical, or incompetent?
Oh, look. Vegas wasn't dead before. Now, it's really REALLY dead. (Round 2 - Let's Talk About Dark PR)
This one went up as I was getting ready to post. (10/17/26) I wanted to share so you could see it's still happening in real time.
Yes, Vegas is Dead again, but this time it's corporate greed, cheating and despite draining your bank account and raking in billions of dollars, every casino in town is closing. (I'm focusing on Youtube, since that's my niche...this is across social media.)
As you can tell, this is AI slop. This must be a hot topic again, right? There's so much posted lately...
Nope. It had a little "spike" back in September across the internet as a whole (Research via Keywords Everywhere and Google Trends) with 100 total searches that day all together, across the world on Google. 100. Then nothing for almost a month. Odd, but sure, whatever.
@DdddDd-l8e
Channel Created: Dec 24, 2025 First Post September 1, 2026 494 Subscribers Video with the most views: 164,000+
Casino Workers Speak Out: "Vegas is DEAD, Silent Layoffs, Dirty Rooms & $9 Beer"
Someone going viral in a few weeks, yet only getting 494 subs? Weird, but okay. AI slop may be to blame.
@AbileshColora
Channel Created: Dec 24, 2025 First Post September 1, 2026 67 Subscribers Video with the most views: 3,798
9 Las Vegas Casinos in Serious Trouble Right Now (March 2026 Update)
Note: This was posted October 5, 2026 There's one video where Mississippi is also failing? Is that just to say it isn't all Vegas content?
@brightsamson-t7m
Channel Created: Sept. 7 2026 First Post September 28, 2026 0 Subscribers Video with the most views: 296
9 Things to Do as Soon as You Walk Into Your Vegas Hotel Room Ex Hotel Manager
Note: This take is somewhat different, with an AI generated talking head. The first video was called "I took a walk with no destination."
@behindthestripyt
Channel Created: Sept. 19 2026 First Post September 19, 2026 Subscribers 62 Video with the most views: 14,000+
Las Vegas Is DYING — And the Latest Numbers Just Made It Official
You'll notice with newer channels, their first post has nothing to do with the rest of the content. Youtube started shutting down channels that just uploaded AI slop. Now, they get around it by posting one "real" video first.
Are there more of these? Oh, yeah. You can go look for them yourself if you're interested. I feel like I've posted enough to get my point across.
What to look for:
1) a channel that has nothing but slop, created since Sept. 1, has a totally un-related "first" video.
2) a channel that was created in late 2025, but didn't post until the beginning of September
3) older channels - either created after March 2025, or MUCH older channels (like, created 2013) that have VEGAS in the name of the channel, and has more subscribers and comments that a channel with only a few videos should (and their content "Starts" after March 2025. (Older channels that didn't keep posting didn't realize they could enable two factor authentication, so some of these might have been pre-existing channels that were stolen.)
4) The telltale yellow/black outline and red/black outline text
To become part of the partner program, you need at least 1,000 subscribers and 10,000 hours of watch time per month.
Even if you can create your content completely for free, you don't want to waste time on something no one is interested in.
This looks to be what's called DARK PR (or negative PR). It's when someone launches a target smear campaign against a competitor. Think of it as the same kind of things as a political attack ad.
But, instead of telling you who to vote for, they hope it will catch traction and go viral. Just like last time.
Who's behind it? You got me. It's going to keep happening, so starting to diversify as soon as we can (and focus on catering to that 19% increase) is our best course of action.
How I realized this was happening: I was certified in analytics, marketing and other social media skills by Youtube Space Los Angeles in 2014 and have been using those skills and learning others since.
Speaking of Social Media, What do you do with 50,000 influencers?
The UAE Part 2
The UAE had a 5% increase in tourism in 2025 while Vegas was hit with an 8% downturn.
While the UAE was on track for another record year, visitor numbers dropped off in February and March, due to the current conflict.
In an interesting coincidence, Las Vegas' numbers have been rising in 2026.
Part of the UAE's success in 2025 was due in part to their 50,000+ team of resident influencers who get perks like a "Golden Visa" (10 years uninterrupted residency), first look access to new experiences and openings, no taxes for personal income, property, inheritance and more.
They even built a new creator space, with the plan of adding 10,000 more influencers in 2026.
However, there's been some controversy regarding these residents.
CNN report on Dubai influencers
Dubai Influencer Propaganda and What It Teaches Every Brand About Reputation Management
[It's because of these articles that I'm not going to call anyone out by name. If you go searching for content, please do not harass them or accuse them of anything. Let's keep everyone safe. ]
In mid-October, they held meetings with Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill and members of the local business community as part of a tour of US cities with tourism economies.
It makes sense, since MGM is currently building a Mega-Resort there housing MGM Grand, Aria and Bellagio. The fountains shown above aren't the Bellagio fountains, btw. They already have their own fountain show. Also, the Wynn is opening a resort there, and already has the first gambling license issued by the UAE.
Hey, I know you!
Do the casinos know what's going on in Dubai and Abu Dhabi? I'm going to go with...yeah. I'm pretty sure.
So, given that they are building these new resorts (casinos), do we think the high rollers are going to stay here in Vegas? The only thing deterring them might be that really long flight back and forth. Well, the UAE has a plan for that, too. I mean, you don't have to fly over if you already live there, right?
Richer people tend to skew older...
Welcome to the UAE's retirement program. It's for people age 55+ who meet certain wealth thresholds.
Perks of living in the UAE incude:
- Zero Personal Income Tax
- Zero Capital Gains or Wealth Tax
- Zero Inheritance or Succession Tax
- Qualifying Free Zone businesses can benefit from 0% corporate tax on qualifying income, alongside R&D tax credits of up to 50% for eligible innovation expenditures
- A referral program (No, I'm not kidding. It's called Dubai Invite Ambassador Program - for other rich friends and family)
- Wealth management and growth programs
- Planned ExPat communities catering to English speakers with schools, hospitals, and transportation systems
And more.
They have other visas if you are rich and under 55.
What does any of this mean?
In my opinion, someone is trying to further impact our reputation by pushing different narratives to see if any stick, while spreading as much disinformation as possible across social media outlets.
Meanwhile, The UAE has duplicated several of the attractions previously unique to Las Vegas with the messaging they are the "new" Vegas, but higher end at a lower price (and family friendly).
Millennials and Gen Z are the generations currently spending money. State departments need to work together to attract those tourism dollars as well as diversify the state's economy so something like this will have less impact in the future.
In the meantime, we build on the infrastructure we have to separate our state from the UAE. We need to pull in new entertainment businesses, collaborate on projects to create new experiences with interstate tourism, train and educate our workforce, while building new career pathways for our residents.
This is not a wait and see kind of thing.
If we can attract small business here and help it grow, it should help buffer against reputational attacks and tourism funnels. While we don't know who is paying for this disinformation push, if they were the same group amplifying Plate-Gate and creating the Vegas is Dead narrative, they're going to keep trying until the next thing hits.
I've dealt with social media and viral marketing in various forms over the last 12 years. (I made it past the primary running against a very popular former state senator for board of regents spending $0. That was literally JUST ME talking to people and asking others to share a couple of social media posts over 3 platforms and answering a ton of emails.)
So, please believe me when I say we are talking about protecting 40% of our state income. Something as small as an 8% dip kept $4 Billion from educational and other state programs. We need to pay attention and take steps to counter it. I've laid out basic pieces of the plan here.
If you want to help, after the election, please send a link to this page to your Assembly representative. It still needs sponsorship.
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