Just before 2015 ended the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced that Las Vegas had broken its own visitation growth record with over 42 million tourists in 2015. This was a big announcement as it was released prior to New Year’s Eve when another 300,000-400,000 would be visiting. The previous record for visitors to Las Vegas was 41.1 million visitors in 2014.
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announces its tourism numbers every month so this record didn’t come as much of a surprise when it announced. Exact tourism data for December and the entire year will be revealed in a few weeks. We should expect this trend of increased visitors to continue in 2016.
Tourism didn’t only increase in 2015 because of people on vacation. Convention attendance increased to almost 600,000 people. Expect the number of convention visitors to continue to grow with the recent expansion of convention space at Mandalay Bay. Looking ahead, there will be larger convention space at Aria (see more info here) and the Las Vegas Convention Center. Convention growth in Las Vegas should increase continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
The increase in visitors to Las Vegas is great but why should you care?
Here’s why: There are more people staying at Las Vegas hotels and the average price of a hotel room is growing rapidly and shouldn’t be slowing down anytime soon.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the average daily hotel room rate increased 7.3% to $121.77 in November. Occupancy of those hotel rooms in November went up 2.7% 86.4%. This was a trend throughout the year and should continue into 2016.
After being hit hard by the last recession between 2007 and 2009, Las Vegas has been unleashing new restaurants, bars, shows, hotel rooms, etc. at a breakneck pace. There are more entertainment venues than ever before. As you’ve already seen on this blog there will be no less than 11 newly renovated hotel rooms to enjoy this year. In addition to the new hotel rooms there are new bars and restaurants opening almost weekly right now.
Each renovation or upgrade comes with a higher price point. Here are some examples of a newer and higher price you might see.
- A hamburger that once cost $10 might be $15 after renovations to a restaurant.
- A fancy cocktail that once cost $12 might cost $18 in a new or renovated bar or lounge.
- A hotel renovated hotel room that used to cost $79 per night might cost $109 per night.
Someone has to pay for the construction or renovation. In today’s economic climate we should expect that when a business to improves itself and its products that they will pass that expense on to its customers.
All of this is to say that Las Vegas is more popular than ever. It’s great that there are a lot of new things to do and see in Las Vegas. It’s good to know in advance that it might cost a little more than the Las Vegas you knew 5-10 years ago.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
