Appetite for travel rebounds despite pandemic

Las Vegas is open for business again, with a few changes meant to protect visitors from the highly-contagious and sometimes deadly coronavirus.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, Vegas is one of many tourist hotspots in a race to embrace visitors as desire for travel rebounds after months of lockdown.

A survey released Tuesday showed about 51 percent of people in North America and Latin America plan to book trips in the next six months.

The poll, by software maker Oracle Corp, is a light of hope for a beleaguered hospitality industry.

"We've seen tens of thousands of hotels closed. We've seen occupancy levels dip below 20 percent for weeks on end. We've seen huge swathes of employees furloughed or let go completely, and it's not in the hundreds, it's in the tens of thousands.

Alex Alt is the general manager of Oracle Hospitality.

"One thing that's refreshing is that consumers want to travel. Right. I mean, there is a resilience and an appetite to be on the road, to explore, to experience."

It can't come soon enough for Las Vegas's Wynn Resort. Chief Information Officer Rajeev Rai told Reuters they've reconfigured the casino floor to cut down on contagion.

"Our capacity of the casino was reduced drastically, so that's slot machines, we removed chairs to enable the physical distancing and the entire sanitization protocol in terms of number of times they are being sanitized at how they're being sanitized, has been completely redone. Then in the table games, which is a close proximity, we've install plexiglass. We require face coverings for both guests and our associates."

Hotels have upended their standard housekeeping protocols. According to the survey, 90% of hotels have increased or planned to increase cleaning and disinfecting. Another 70% of already are or are planning to adopt technology that cuts down on human contact, and hopefully viral transmission.

Darren Clark is the vice president of technology for Viceroy Hotels and Resorts.

"We upgraded our technology to make it contactless, from contactless check-in to contactless in the guest room, utilizing the TV system on Volara (voice activated software). At end of the day, our biggest concern is the health and safety of our guests and our employees."

And Alt says the guests are returning.

"This last Saturday, we saw the highest occupancy level out of this particular dataset, which represents about 600 hotels -- the highest occupancy levels since March 14th. So, look, we need that to continue."

One change: Many say they prefer to drive, and stay closer to home, than fly internationally.

That's good for Americans, because with COVID-19 cases skyrocketing in the U.S., the European Union last week removed American tourists from its 'safe' travel list.