According to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data, the first four months of this year showed a decrease in the overall number of visitors. Mark Wayman, a recruiter for executives in the gaming and casino industries, told Business Insider in May that Las Vegas bookings through the summer are “the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Air traffic into Harry Reid International Airport is also trending downward, as domestic travel for the first half of 2025 was down 4% compared to last year.
Alternate link: https://archive.ph/z9oWV
Not surprised given how Vegas has evolved in the last 10-15 years. Most of the casinos are run by MGM or Caesars so there is zero incentive to compete any more. It’s all expensive - the rooms, the meals, the shows. They slap bullshit like “resort fees” on everything. The comps / drinks are minimal. The table limits are ridiculous. Most of the public attractions are shut down or dialed back. The public transport is abysmal. Oh and Donald Trump has basically told the world that tourists aren’t welcome any more. I’m surprised anybody bothers going there any more quite frankly.
Hmm, I can’t think of anything in the US that may be affecting tourism right now. Anyone else drawing a blank?
Well it can’t be hostility to foreigners or the cost of living skyrocketing to the stratosphere, because there’s no way that could ever happen. Must be the Democrat’s fault. Thanks Obama.
It’s gambling in airconditioned shitty hotels, a miracle anyone wants to go in the first place.
Right now they’re trying to bulldoze Coney Island, aka “The People’s Playground” and a historic icon, to replace it with a shitty casino. No one wants it, but the money must flow. The parent corp is paying off people and using shitty tactics to try to fake support for it, but they’ve also pissed off a massive community of artists and activists who have been fighting tooth and nail against it.
We already lost the streets. The city gave them to a greedy corporation that has bought and ruined multiple historic buildings over the last two decades. Eric Adams has a hand in all of this.
Below is their plan. See the little building circled in red? That’s home to a museum, a theater, a cultural pillar and events organizer, and the last permanently housed circus sideshow in quite possibly the world. It’s got historic protected status. They’re trying to engulf us.
If you’ve read this far, please spread the word. This is my performance home. If you live near NY, sign the petition
Yeah, I have always been puzzled by the fact that so many people seem to actively desire to spend their time (and not least money) in that place.
The US government threatened to annex Canada, violently or by economic blackmail. Fuck them. I would like to cordially invite Trump to shit out his own liver.
If Vegas is a casualty, then let it die.
Call me crazy but we shouldn’t be building cities in the middle of the desert anyway.
That too
Testament to humanities hubris
I’m guessing half of the drop is Canadians
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas because we can’t afford to go there and play.
Lol trump killed the US tourism
No tax tips though👍
I couldn’t imagine why
Vegas fucking sucks though, honestly.
Yeah, I went once and would not revisit. I think it may be a personal preference. I don’t drink, buy timeshares, hire prostitutes or gamble, I’m not the target audience. Also a lot of grungy homeless people on the strip. Food was good though.
Yeah that happens when you take away people’s financial stability and/or money in general. No one plans to spend it they plan to save it.
But also the freedom of online gambling probably contributed more. I could spend $1k on hotels, food, and travel just got get to vegas to blow away $500. Or I can buy a few pizzas, gather friends to my home, go out to dinner with them, sleep in my own bed, and spin the lottery machine arm on my phone and save most of my money instead?
I don’t do online gambling, so maybe I am missing an important detail here, but there’s no recent development that would explain why online gambling would have an effect now, and not a year ago, or even 15 years ago.
Over the past 7-ish years more and more states have legalized online sports gambling. There was a longstanding law that essentially forbade it in most states. It was struck down at the start of this rush.
It could be part of a gradual decline as a result of that
I don’t think the gambling was the draw for the majority of tourists. It was a factor but they went for the entirety of activities according to the last data I saw on it. It was a destination and not just a gambling venue.
13.2% fewer international travelers visited Las Vegas in June compared to last year.
I’m surprised it only declined that much…
I think a partial explanation can be that for most international tourists a visit to the USA is a major trip that gets planned well in advance. Easily half or even a full year ahead. Things only really got bad in the last few months, so we might still see many holidays that were planned before the madness fully set in. If that is the case I’d expect a continued decline in the future, where people choose another destination when deciding their next itinerary.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Vegas wasn’t a huge international destination except for the super rich. It’s a really long way to go to gamble, and there’s a good or better attractions in other US cities.
So many states have legalized gambling and Indian casinos exist that Vegas makes zero sense anymore, unless women lose more rights and have to get divorced there or whatever.
We were in Las Vegas a couple of months ago and the prices were beyond belief. Two pastries and a bottle of water at the Bellagio were $27. Ferris wheel tickets were $30 each. A movie at the Sphere was $95. The food, even at highly rated restaurants wasn’t all that good while still being very expensive. We’re happy to spend more while on vacation, but there is no way this place is worth anywhere near what they are charging.
Las Vegas is now a prime example of enshittification. The Bellagio’s fountain show has been shortened to 6 minutes and is a shadow of the previously impressive show. They’ve removed the lighting from their famous Chihuli glass ceiling. The city and the hotels have removed all public seating so you can’t just wander around without spending hours on your feet or visiting one of those expensive, mediocre restaurants. (The Venetian was a welcome exception to this.)
Las Vegas used to be a fun place to do a bit of gambling while enjoying lots of other activities without being fleeced. Not anymore.
At some point they broke the compact. You come, you get a $30-per-night hotel and a $8 steak dinner because the rest of the money is going into the machines/tables. That’s why so many of the attractions used to be the gawkable buildings and public shows-- you could still enjoy them if you had blown your budget.
I guess they pivoted away, but to what? There are whales who want a $5000-per-night suite but you can’t fill an entire 30-story building with them (especially when there are 50 such buildings within walking distance all chasing them)
I went in May and even cheap meals were over $10, the low-mid priced Fremont Street hotel was around a hundred bucks a night, and the one show I went to was 1/3 full probably because it was $75 for an act that’s been running for decades. I budgeted $1000 to gamble but ended up only dropping 350 because it felt like it wasn’t much I couldn’t see in the local Native-reservation casino.
I will say nothing but good things for the Pinball Hall of Fame though.
It became corporate thats what happened. About 15 years ago I took a cab in Vegas. My driver was a long since retired back up singer. He told me stories of working with all sorts of Vegas acts, Sinatra and so on.
He then got a bit wistful about the old times. He said he missed old Vegas. He missed the mob. He said when the mob ran Vegas you knew where you stood and the mob knew to simply take a little off the top year after year.
Then he said the corporations moved in. And everyyear they squeeze. Take more and more, it never stops. They are the ones who invited families in and squeezed some more. Raised the prices on everything, made the odds worse if the could on slots, built giant building and increased the prices for rent and nickle and dimed every single service they could.
And year after year it was never enough, they just kept squeezing and increasing prices.
That didn’t happen in 4 months though. I wonder what changed, hmmmm.
That didn’t happen in 4 months though.
I think a tipping point has been reached.
Really? There couldn’t be any other reasons?
Why don’t you enlighten us with your insight?
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, new international arrivals data for March 2025 reveal a sharp and widespread drop in inbound travel from many of the country’s key source markets:
- UK arrivals, one of the U.S.’s most important source markets, down nearly 15% year over year
- Germany, another significant source market, plunged more than 28%
- South Korea – down almost 15%
- Other key markets, such as Spain, Colombia, Ireland, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic, saw double-digit drops between 24% and 33%
As widely expected, the Canadian market is drying up, with early summer bookings down over 20% compared to last year. This is more than a dip. It’s a wake-up call.
https://wttc.org/news/us-economy-set-to-lose-12-5bn-in-international-traveler-spend-this-year
International tourism
Canadians visits are down by 50+ points.
Not sure why it’s not 95+.50 is insane already, these are cancelled non-refunded holidays.
That’s the sort of decisions being made: do I cancel and lose this money. I don’t many could swallow the loss and still went.
My guess is it’s a trip most book a year out (ie after returning from their last one) so the decline will be alot more noticeable around October
Baby boomers
Vegas is an entirely man made vacation destination, there is no natural reason to visit. It used to be that only Nevada and New Jersey had gambling but now you find gambling towns everywhere.
Maybe they should advertise doing drugs in the desert
