Las Vegas Record Visitor Spending Hid a Fragile Mix

Las Vegas visitors spent a record $55.1 billion in 2024, then cut shopping hard once the crowd thinned a year later.

Applied Analysis, hired by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, put per-visit outlays at $1,322. Gaming bankrolls slipped to $244 a person, and Strip casino win fell for six straight months to close the year.

How Much Did Las Vegas Visitors Spend in 2024?

Southern Nevada drew 41.7 million visitors in 2024, up 2.1 percent from 2023 and the closest the market had come to the 42.5 million recorded in 2019. That traffic produced the third straight record for visitor spending, $55.1 billion, up 7 percent.

The extra dollars were smaller than the rebound years right after the pandemic, when spending jumped 24.4 percent in 2022 and 14.7 percent in 2023. Per visit, 2024 still landed 4.8 percent above 2023 and 52.6 percent above 2019.

The LVCVA Research Center’s year-end tally put hotel occupancy at 83.6 percent on a room stock of 150,612. Harry Reid International Airport moved 58.4 million passengers. Convention attendance held at 6 million, up 0.1 percent, still about 10 percent below 2019.

Convention guests spent $1,681 a trip, 33.2 percent more than the $1,262 from the average leisure visitor, and the convention segment put $10.1 billion into the local economy. Hotels and casinos directly employed 146,490 people, up 7.2 percent.

The Slot Floor Lost Ground While Malls Gained

Most trip categories rose. Gaming, sightseeing, and sporting-event attendance (leaving out Super Bowl LVIII) did not. The all-visitor gaming bankroll fell from $248 to $244, a different figure from the LVCVA visitor profile, which asked only people who gambled and found a 2024 trip budget of $820.15 among that group, with 78 percent of visitors playing.

Shopping posted the largest dollar gain, from $249 to $281 a visitor, up 12.8 percent, and shopping’s share of the trip mix rose 1.5 points. The 2024 record was a mall-and-room year more than a felt year.

HOW THE TRIP BUDGET MOVED

Those 2025 columns are the tell. The dollars that built the record were the ones that left first.

Six Losing Months Closed the Strip’s Year

Applied Analysis tied the softer gaming share to the Las Vegas Strip, where casino win fell year over year for six straight months to end 2024. For the full year, Strip gaming revenue dropped $88.2 million, or 1.0 percent.

Downtown and neighborhood clubs did not move in lockstep with the Boulevard. That split, already visible in the monthly win reports, became the 2025 story in sharper form: fewer tourists on Las Vegas Boulevard, and more of the state’s gaming growth sitting in locals rooms.

The Strip’s 2024 dip was modest in dollar terms against an $8.8 billion run rate. It still broke a post-pandemic streak of easy compares and lined up with the $4 drop in the all-visitor gaming bankroll.

Shopping Was the First Budget Visitors Cut

Every month of 2025 drew fewer visitors than the same month in 2024. The count fell 7.5 percent to 38.5 million, a loss of 3.1 million people and the lowest year since 32.2 million in 2021. July was down 12 percent, February 11.9 percent, and June 11.3 percent.

Total visitor spending per-visit spending stayed near $1,318, only $4 below the record year, which is why the damage was a volume story. Aggregate spend fell 7.8 percent to $50.8 billion, a $4.3 billion hole that wiped out 2024’s gain from 2023’s $51.5 billion. Even so, per-visit outlays remained 52.1 percent above 2019.

Shopping dropped to $222 a visit, down $59, or 21 percent. Sightseeing fell $9, or 19.8 percent. Room spend eased $2, or 1.2 percent. Gaming had the largest dollar increase, more than $27 a visit, or 11.2 percent, and the largest gain in spender share. Sporting events rose $10 a visit, or 81.7 percent. Recreational activities were up 26.6 percent and paid attractions 18.9 percent.

Domestic passengers at Harry Reid fell 5.9 percent and international traffic 7.4 percent. The airport’s annual total was 55.0 million, against 58.4 million the year before. Occupancy slid to 80.3 percent and the average daily rate to $183.52 on 150,300 rooms. The LVCVA dashboard now lists 38.5 million visitors in 2025 and $50.8 billion in direct visitor spending.

WHAT FILLED THE 2024 CALENDAR

• Super Bowl LVIII: Allegiant Stadium drew 325,000 visitors to Southern Nevada for the game.
• Formula 1 weekend: The Las Vegas Grand Prix added the three-night Neon City Festival downtown.
• National Finals Rodeo: Attendance topped 170,000 across 10 shows, up from 157,580 in 2023.
• New rooms: Durango Casino and Resort and Fontainebleau posted their first full year after December 2023 openings.

2025 had no Super Bowl and a thinner leisure calendar. Convention attendance stayed near 6 million, down 0.1 percent, a third straight plateau. Leisure visitors spent $1,230 a trip; convention guests spent $1,795.

Locals Casinos, Not the Strip, Set the Record

Clark County still posted a $13.7 billion gaming win, the fifth straight annual record, and Applied Analysis credited locals clubs for the lift. The Strip finished at $8.8 billion, up less than $3 million, essentially unchanged after losing 7.5 percent of its visitors.

Statewide, commercial casinos took in $15.8 billion, up 1.2 percent, the fifth straight year of record gaming revenue in the American Gaming Association’s Nevada tally. The association put casino tax collections at $1.22 billion. Electronic games made $10.71 billion, up 1.9 percent, while table-game win fell 3.3 percent to $4.45 billion.

The pattern matches what local operators already see on the ground: neighborhood floors kept winning, and the Boulevard had to pull more money from each remaining guest. Bigger gambling receipts did not cover the hole in rooms, retail, and restaurants when the tourist count fell.

WHERE THE 2025 WIN LANDED

• Las Vegas Strip: $8.8 billion, up less than $3 million after a 1.0 percent drop in 2024.
• Clark County: $13.7 billion, a fifth consecutive record, driven by locals properties.
• Nevada statewide: $15.8 billion, up 1.2 percent, with growth outside the Strip.

Jeremy Aguero, a principal at Applied Analysis, told the LVCVA board he had warned a year earlier that pressure on consumers could weigh on travel. He called the stable per-visit figure remarkable given the softness, and he tied it to a mixed tourism base and a steadier convention book.

Fewer First-Timers Brought Bigger Gambling Budgets

The 2025 visitor profile found 81 percent of guests gambled, with an average visitor gambling budget of $849 among those who played, up $28.80, or 3.5 percent, from 2024. Both the play rate and the budget were the highest in five years. Only 7 percent said gambling was the main reason for the trip.

The room was richer and more familiar. Forty-four percent of 2025 visitors reported household income of $150,000 or more, against 25 percent in 2024 and 11 percent in 2022. First-timers fell to 10 percent, from 24 percent in 2022. Food and drink averaged $582.86, down from $615.07.

That mix is the aftertaste of the 2024 shopping boom. The destination had already been selling rooms, shows, clubs, sports, and conventions harder than cheap buffets and cheap blackjack. When mid-market and first-time guests stayed home, the people who still came were older in wallet and more willing to play. Locals who had moved in from coastal cities filled some weekday seats that tourists left empty.

Consumers are feeling squeezed a bit and we’re seeing the impact associated with that. People aren’t going to stop traveling. They’re going to look for ways to do it and get value out of it.

Jeremy Aguero, principal, Applied Analysis, to the LVCVA board

Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA, later told the Nevada Economic Forum that 2025 sat among the harder years outside the pandemic and that the city had been seen as overpriced. In September 2026 he said annual volume was still about 10 percent below 2019’s 42.5 million. Operators have also pointed to weaker Canadian travel as a drag on 2025 and into 2026.

Tourism Still Pays One in Three Regional Wages

The 2024 peak supported 252,610 direct jobs, about 4,100 more than 2023, and 385,330 jobs once suppliers and household spending were counted. Direct wages were $14.6 billion, up 5.6 percent, or 20.5 percent of all pay in the region. Counting ripple effects, visitor spending supported $21.3 billion in wages, 30 percent of regional pay and 34.3 percent of private pay. Direct output of $55.1 billion was 30.9 percent of a $178.4 billion local GDP. Total output, including those ripples, reached $87.7 billion, up 3 percent.

JOBS AND PAY AFTER THE SLUMP

• Direct jobs: 250,630 in 2025, 1,980 fewer than 2024, a 0.8 percent drop.
• All supported jobs: 382,320, still about one in three positions in Southern Nevada.
• Direct wages: $15.2 billion, higher than 2024 even with fewer jobs.
• Total wages: $22.1 billion, with $2.8 billion indirect and $4.2 billion induced.

Total economic output fell 7.8 percent to $80.9 billion. Aguero told directors that Southern Nevada has added other industries and is still more reliant on tourism than any other U.S. market of its size is on a single industry. The Las Vegas Convention Center’s share of regional convention attendees slipped to 17.7 percent, and those guests spent $1.9 billion.

Through July 2026 the destination had inched off the floor. Visitor volume was 22,754,200, up 0.5 percent from 22,640,600 a year earlier, and convention attendance was up 11.2 percent. Strip gaming win through July 2026 was $5.252 billion, up 3.2 percent from $5.087 billion. July itself drew 3,171,600 visitors, up 2.7 percent, with Strip win up 3.6 percent.

Frequently Asked Questions

What share of Las Vegas visitors gamble during their trip?

In 2025, 81 percent of visitors said they gambled, the highest share in five years, even though only 7 percent named gambling as the main reason for coming. The 2024 profile put the play rate at 78 percent, with an $820.15 budget among those who played, a separate survey number from the all-visitor bankroll in the economic-impact study.

How many Las Vegas visitors in 2025 were first-timers?

Ten percent of 2025 visitors were on a first trip, the lowest share in five years and well below 24 percent in 2022. The profile is built from 5,409 respondents, about 3,600 of them interviewed in person.

How many slot machines operate in Clark County?

Clark County had 90,182 slot machines in the LVCVA’s 2025 FAQ set, last updated in June 2026. That machine count sits beside $13.7 billion in county gaming win and $8.8 billion on the Strip for the same year.

What was Nevada’s commercial casino tax take in 2025?

The American Gaming Association put Nevada casino tax revenue at $1.22 billion for 2025, on $15.80 billion of commercial casino gaming revenue. Land-based growth that year came mainly from clubs beyond the Strip.

How long is the average Las Vegas visitor stay?

The LVCVA’s 2025 FAQ lists an average stay of 3.2 nights. The 2024 visitor profile had put the mean at 3.4 nights and 4.4 days, a slight increase from 3.3 nights and 4.3 days in 2023.

Through July 2026, visitor volume was barely ahead of the slump year and Strip win was up 3.2 percent. The shopping surge that padded 2024’s record has not shown up again in the published monthly figures.