grants to certain tourism entities<\/a>. The legislation, however, never made it out of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.<\/p>\nThat same committee has received the 2021 STEP Act. S.307 is the legislation’s official designation.<\/p>\n
Casinos Need Events, Conventions<\/b><\/h2>\n
The 2021 STEP Act is welcomed news to Las Vegas casinos. While leisure travelers heavily occupy the region’s more than 150,000 hotel rooms on the weekends during a non-pandemic environment, it’s conventioneers who keep the resorts bustling midweek.<\/p>\n
The STEP Act would allow various businesses, as well as tourism and convention agencies, to qualify for federal grants. One such example would be the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA),<\/p>\n
The STEP press release says the $2.25 billion in funding would support four main areas:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- tourism marketing and promotion activities necessary to assist with economic recovery<\/li>\n
- to pay costs associated with providing information to visitors about the health and safety protections<\/li>\n
- paying cleaning and sanitary costs, including physical modifications, associated with precautions to provide for safe worker, traveler, or event environments<\/li>\n
- paying costs of salaries and expenses associated with the operations of the applicants, excluding industry executives<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The LVCVA reports that convention attendance dropped 74 percent last year. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s (D) ban on large indoor gatherings resulted in nearly every planned convention in April or later being canceled or postponed.<\/p>\n
Assuring Public Safety<\/b><\/h2>\n
Cortez Masto, who succeeded Nevada’s longtime Senator Harry Reid in 2017, says the tourism, hospitality, and gaming industries have historically taken the longest to recover from economic downturns.<\/p>\n
The senior senator from Nevada<\/a> believes the federal government must step in to help such industries recover from the unprecedented crisis.<\/p>\nCortez Masto concludes that the STEP Act will “promote economic recovery and help increase public confidence as these industries look to reopen safely in the future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Legislation in the US Senate has been introduced that seeks to assist the tourism and hospitality industries in their COVID-19 recoveries. Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D), along with Senate cosponsors Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn.), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND), today introduced another version of their Sustaining Tourism Enterprises During the COVID\u201319 Pandemic (STEP) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":164291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Senate Legislation to Support Tourism and Hospitality Industries Introduced<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n