It’s always sunny in Vegas

It takes more than 50 minutes to walk from the southern end of Las Vegas’s famous boulevard, The Strip, to the Resorts World precinct in the north.

I made that journey at record pace, darting through crowds and using the bridges connecting casino complexes over roadways. 

That got me to the auditorium just in time to grab a cocktail and watch Katy Perry’s show, Play.

Built in the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas has a shady reputation, but the mood on the bustling strip is joyous.

The Strip is 6.8 kilometres long, but everything looks deceptively close due to the scale and spread-out nature of buildings along the route.

Each is enormous, most are set back from the street, and some rise dozens of storeys.

Caesars Palace, for example, has about 550 metres of street frontage, nearly 4,000 hotel rooms in six towers, and a 60,000 square metre shopping mall.

There are about 150,000 hotel rooms in the city.

My highlight was joining two US military veterans on the sidewalk for a karaoke performance of Tom Jones’s If I Only Knew.

I also conquered some fears by riding a rollercoaster on the rooftop of a casino, including some nerve-racking moments as the tracks rose dramatically and descended over a nearby street.

Some of the best moments are free, particularly the famed water fountain show at The Bellagio, or walking among the sunny holidaymakers along the boulevard.

There’s something for everyone along The Strip.

Tourists can have a coffee at Paris Las Vegas, cruise the canals of The Venetian, and enjoy a drink at New York New York’s Coyote-Ugly-inspired bar all in one night.

Most of the older resorts are built around specific themes, like ancient Egypt or pirates (some of which verge on tacky) while the more modern offerings tend to be upmarket.

Las Vegas’s economy is dominated by one industry, tourism, and capital intensive mega-projects to develop those new resorts.

Sound familiar?

Specialised economy

It’s an article of faith among commentators that Western Australia must diversify its economy to “end the boom-bust cycle”.

The past 150 years of international economic history would suggest the state is not unique in having booms or busts. 

Our experience through the GFC and the COVID-19 pandemic have shown we have been incredibly fortunate in avoiding the worst of those severe downturns. 

On both occasions, the resources industry contributed significantly to keeping WA afloat. 

It’s instructive to compare WA to Nevada. 

Nevada is heavily reliant on its biggest industry, tourism and hospitality, which employs nearly a quarter of the state’s workers. 

About 360,000 Nevadans work in the leisure sector, a number that was pummelled during the pandemic. 

Their average earnings are $US45,000 annually, while the 15,000 locals who work in that state’s mining industry are paid $US124,000 on average. 

Producing precious metals and critical minerals is driving a bigger payday for employees than gaming. 

Much like iron ore or LNG, the resorts of Vegas are major projects, requiring huge outlays of capital. 

Resorts World was opened in 2021 with a price tag of $US4.3 billion. 

The CityCenter buildings, which include the Aria casino, cost $US9.2 billion in 2009. 

If it wasn’t for the construction of the nearby Hoover Dam 80 years ago or some entrepreneurial mobsters, there would be almost nothing in the Southern Nevada desert. 

Similarly, our state would be much less developed and economically successful without the leaders who built WA’s resources industry. 

Every industry can suffer from cyclical downturns, and those driven by disposable income such as tourism are surely among the most exposed. 

Those downturns are generally highly correlated as consumers pull back from unnecessary spending and/or investors become reluctant to put cash into ventures. 

There’s no magic solution. 

There are many arguments to embrace new industries in WA, but there’s every reason to be grateful for what we have already created.