The head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Tuesday detailed a swift reversal in the agency’s financial projections amid the coronavirus, saying room tax revenue could fall by two-thirds during the next fiscal year.

During a meeting conducted by telephone Tuesday, the tourism agency’s board of directors approved a $79 million cut to the Fiscal Year 2020 budget, including staff layoffs and furloughs.

The pandemic, which has essentially halted tourism, makes budgeting for Fiscal Year 2021 difficult given the health and economic variables at play, the LVCVA’s chief executive officer, Steve Hill, told the board of directors. The agency had been projecting a little more than $300 million in room tax revenue collection during the next fiscal year, along with $60 million in building revenue.

Now, Hill said the tourism agency — which has been working with consulting firm Applied Analysis, local governments and industry leaders — expects only $100 million to $120 million in room tax revenue collection. He said projections within that range will likely appear on a fiscal year 2021 budget presented to the board in May.

“While we are optimistic about the future of Las Vegas, we know that the industry is going to remain closed for some period of time and fiscal year (2021) is going to be difficult,” he said.

The LVCVA Board of Directors on Tuesday authorized the agency to cut its fiscal year 2020 budget by $79 million and reduce operating expenses given the economic conditions. The board vote also ratified cost-reducing steps already taken by the tourism agency, such as eliminating performance pay for executives and management, implementing a hiring freeze, furloughing temporary and on-call staff, suspending or terminating nonessential vendor contracts, offering a voluntary separation program and deferring phase three of a convention center renovation project.

But more actions are on the horizon.

Hill said the agency has about 455 full-time employees, and of those, about 80 will be eliminated and another 270 will be furloughed. He said furloughed employees would retain their health care coverage.

“Separating people from their health insurance in this environment did not seem like the right step for us to take,” he said.

The tourism agency is notifying affected employees of layoffs or furloughs this week, Hill said, although they will be paid through April 25. The cost-cutting measures won’t go into effect until April 26.

Speaking more broadly about tourism, Hill said the agency expects “a slow start and then a gradual recovery throughout the year,” with local residents and people from markets within driving distance being the first to return. The international tourism segment, he said, will likely take the longest to recover.

“Obviously, some regions of the country are hit harder than others, so we will focus on those areas that offer the most potential early on and expand from there as flights expand and people across the country have the ability to return to Las Vegas,” he said.

Outside of making bond payments, Hill said the agency has prioritized money and support for marketing and advertising efforts as the city begins its tourism rebirth. Even if the virus resurges during fiscal year 2021, prompting another round of closures, Hill said the agency has enough money for bond payments.

“We will certainly make bond payments,” he said. “There is frankly no reasonable scenario that would cause us to not make payments or not be able to make bond payments.”

But Hill didn’t gloss over the bruising effect the pandemic will have on what had previously been sunny tourism projections.

“In February, we were excited about the direction the year was heading in,” he said. “We were set to set records in a number of different ways. By the time we got to March, we realized the coronavirus was certainly going to have an impact.”

Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a sweeping order on March 17 for all nonessential businesses, including casinos, to close as the state battled COVID-19. He then extended the closures through the end of April, and it’s unclear when those restrictions will be lifted, allowing some normalcy to return to the tourism-dependent economy.

Despite the unknowns, Hill said the LVCVA will do its part to help the Las Vegas economy in the aftermath of the health crisis. He noted that Las Vegas had seen room tax records in six of the nine months leading into this disrupted period, indicating a previously healthy demand.

“The desire to come to Las Vegas has not changed,” he said. “People can’t come right now. But there is still no place like Las Vegas.”

Hill also told the board of directors that two projects — the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion and the underground tunnel transportation system — remain in progress and on schedule.