While economists and real estate experts believe the city will rebound, workers in the city are not convinced. Teddy Pappageorge, the treasury-secretary of Las Vegas’ powerful Culinary Union 226, told SAN that last year was abysmal for the city’s workforce, and he doesn’t see many improvements coming in a short amount of time.

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“If you tell people they aren’t welcome, they simply won’t come,” Pappageorge told SAN. “The international traveler that spends longer and stays longer won’t come. And this administration is doubling down on this chaos.”

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Pappageorge said even the large conventions like CES and NFL games did little to attract international tourists. 

“These large events are critical for us, but they still aren’t pulling people. Our members are getting their hours reduced and some are not getting called in to work at all,” Pappageorge said. “Restaurants are not staying open as long as they used to be. When you combine that with the affordability crisis… the average person who goes on vacation thinks twice.”

Cris Barneond, a cook at the Cosmopolitan, told SAN that last year’s tourism decline brought night-and-day changes to his life. 

As an on-call worker, he told SAN he is worried that inconsistencies in his work schedule could force him to sell the Toyota Tacoma he bought last year to make ends meet. 

“Right now times are tough, I use every coupon that I can find. We are trying to stretch everything,” Barneond said. “I do Facebook Marketplace and sell what I can [when I’m not working]. You gotta figure it out in most cases.”