‘Content creator Olympics’: How Vegas hired influencer interns to attract Gen Z

Tori Kay positioned her phone against a display at the Arte Museum and began work on her latest creative project: a pink and purple zebra. She framed the shot, added color to the final stripes, then scanned the completed piece and filmed as the zebra appeared on the exhibit walls, prancing among other hand‑drawn, animated animals. Although she was sketching with crayons during a July visit to the Las Vegas Strip attraction, Kay was actually serving as an intern with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “I support calling it the contented creator Olympics — the contented creator footwear camp,” Kay said. “My full Google calendar is mapped retired with the outfit I privation to wear, wherever I request to beryllium and the tags.” Five aspiring content creators, including Kay, each received $25,000 for a 10‑day internship with the LVCVA. Rather than performing traditional office tasks, the program — dubbed the “Summer Intern House” — featured clubbing, fine dining, sports car racing and helicopter rides over the city. “We privation to scope Gen Z wherever they already are, and we cognize contented that doesn’t consciousness similar an advertisement performs,” said Michael O’Brien, vice president of integer and contented selling for LVCVA. “We get a precocious measurement of contented that’s arsenic authentic as it gets, consecutive from the creators, and they get an acquisition they couldn’t enactment unneurotic connected their own.” After touring the remaining exhibits, Kay sat at the museum café and began editing her footage for Instagram and TikTok, turning it into one of the 92 videos she produced during the program. Visiting the Arte Museum was one of roughly 50 excursions the LVCVA scheduled for the interns. Over the course of the ten‑day initiative that concluded Aug. 1, participants posted two videos for each activity, averaging about ten posts per day. Each outing was funded either by the LVCVA — whose revenue derives primarily from room taxes paid by visitors to Southern Nevada — or compensated by the individual businesses involved. “There’s a batch much to bash successful Vegas than you think,” said Kay. “People deliberation that you travel to Vegas conscionable to bash the nightlife, but astir of our experiences and excursions person been during the day.” Although termed the “Summer Intern House,” no actual residence existed; the interns stayed at various hotels, including the Vanderpump Hotel, The Cosmopolitan and The Venetian. The initiative marks the LVCVA’s first program of its kind. Its launch follows a notable decline in the city’s tourism the previous year. Visitation fell by 7.6 percent in 2025, equating to three million fewer visitors than in 2024. Despite the downturn, tourism continues to drive Southern Nevada’s economy, generating $50.8 billion in visitor spending. Las Vegas is not the only municipality employing influencer initiatives to attract travelers. In April 2025, the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism introduced a 12‑week paid program for aspiring content creators titled the “Beautiful Destinations Academy.” Visit Myrtle Beach also conducted a comparable effort, paying eight content creators for a month‑long residency called “Matador House: Creators in Residency Myrtle Beach.” The LVCVA announced the “Summer Intern House” in May. Applicants aged 21 to 29 submitted a social‑media video responding to the prompt: “Why should you be our summer intern?” After reviewing submissions, the authority opened a national vote and allowed its social‑media community to select the finalists. “You’re learning truthful much. You’re moving truthful fast,” Kay said. “It’s precise speedy pace, but it’s each things you emotion doing.”