Ask Skift: How Has Las Vegas Tourism Changed?

Tourism to Las Vegas has made a strong recovery from the pandemic, with visitor spending hitting a record $79.3 billion in 2022.

How has the city’s tourism industry changed? We posed the question to Ask Skift, our artificial intelligence chatbot. It provided answers using information that has appeared in our past news coverage and research, and we also conducted additional reporting on the subject.

Ask Skift said:

Yes, the Las Vegas tourism industry has reinvented itself to adapt to changing trends and demands in the market.

For instance, the Las Vegas Sands has shifted its business mix to cater more to the mass segment rather than focusing solely on the VIP segment. This strategy has proven successful with their operating capacity now standing at about 12,000 rooms with increasing hotel occupancy rates.

Moreover, MGM Resorts International has expanded its offerings beyond traditional casino operations, finding that events like Formula One’s inaugural stop in Las Vegas are drawing in visitors.

It’s also important to note that Las Vegas resorts underwent significant rebranding and overhauls, especially post-recession, signaling the city’s recovery and commitment to reinvention.

Finally, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) plays a crucial role in reinvention efforts through targeted ad campaigns and partnerships, strategizing to attract more visitors and keep business thriving in the city.

So, the reinvention of the Las Vegas tourism industry appears to be a continuous process, responding to trends and focusing on customer needs to ensure its vitality and relevance in the global tourism market.

What else you need to know:

Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said sports will be a critical part of the city’s tourism strategy. The city is hosting Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, which drew more than 100,000 fans for practice, qualifying and featured races. Hill said the event, which is taking place on the city’s quietest weekends for tourism, would inject $1.3 billion into the local economy.

And Las Vegas will welcome the Super Bowl in February 2024, which is projected to bring roughly 330,000 visitors.

Roughly 6% of all visitors to Las Vegas in 2022 told the LVCVA that they attended a sporting event. That’s double the percentage of people who said the same five years earlier. Meanwhile, tourists in 2022 spent more than $117 per trip on shows and entertainment, more than double the figure from 2019.

Sporting and entertainment are part of the booming “fun economy,” which Bo Bernhard, vice president of economic development at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, said is nine times bigger than the global pharmaceutical industry.

In addition, visitors to Las Vegas have gotten younger. A LVCVA study found that average age of visitors to the city in 2022 was 40.7 years, down from 43.2 years in 2021. Tourism to Las Vegas has overall taken a similar turn over the past 30 years – the average age of visitors in 1992 was 47.2.