The Las Vegas tourism industry continues to struggle with sinking visitor numbers.
September data released by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) reveals that the city experienced an 8.8 percent decrease in visitors compared to the same month last year. About 3 million people visited Sin City in September.
Statistics for September were down across several categories in a city that’s considered a bellwether for tourism in the United States. For instance, the hotel occupancy for September was just 78.7 percent, down 5.2 percent year-over-year. Additionally, RevPar, or revenue per available room, was down 9 percent.
Convention attendance, another important category for Las Vegas, declined a significant 18.7 percent for September, sitting at just 428,400 for the month.
Officials attribute the September convention slump partially to the absence of the quadrennial MINExpo, which brings 45,000 attendees and took place in the city last September.
Similarly, there was a calendar shift for Oracle CloudWorld conference, a 30,000 strong event that took place in October this year versus September last year.
The city’s tourism woes, however, began in the months after the U.S presidential inauguration as international travelers began avoiding the country. Canadian travelers in particular (one of the city’s most important source markets) are skipping trips to Las Vegas, and the United States in general, in response to President Donald Trump’s alienating rhetoric and policies.
By June, that reality became abundantly clear for Las Vegas with the release of a visitation report that showed visitor volume in Sin City was down 11.3 percent year-over-year compared to June 2024.
Further supporting this challenge, Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley told NBC in August that Canadian tourists, which were the Silver State’s
largest international market, have been staying away in droves, turning a
tourism torrent “to a drip.”
Though some Las Vegas locals attribute the city’s tourism decline, at least in part, to the rising cost of visiting. The August report from NBC ndicated the city may be pricing itself out of the middle class tourist’s budget.
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