GOED director: Nevada tourism economy will take until 2024 to recover

Michael Brown, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, said Wednesday that it will take three years for the nation’s tourism economy to recover.

“The tourism economy in the United States will take until 2024 to recover largely because so much of our tourism in a big country depends on air travel,” he told the Northern Nevada Development Authority at its annual economic report.

Because of its heavy reliance on tourism, he said the Southern Nevada economy is having much more severe economic problems than the north. He said 242,000 of the 287,000 lost jobs are in Clark County — 84 percent of the total in the state.

“Service-based businesses are the most vulnerable,” he said.

In contrast, he said the economy in Northern Nevada “looks very strong.”

He said the economy in the north is much more diverse than in the south. In rural Nevada, he said gold and lithium mining are helping carry the economy. He said he was excited to report that GOED has three lithium battery recyclers coming to western Nevada.

But he said GOED is also seeing significant interest from movie and film production companies including interest in building a film production studio in the Silver State that would mean many more films being produced here. That would create a significant economic impact.