Las Vegas Numbers Are in a Tailspin
Visitor numbers are down, airport traffic has dipped, and jobs are being cut. What is happening in Las Vegas and why?
Las Vegas has had significantly fewer visitors in 2025. © Getty Images
Key Facts:
- Visitor numbers to Las Vegas are heavily down during the early months of 2025.
- A night on the Las Strip now costs an average of $203.17 per night.
- Major Las Vegas hotels are cutting jobs.
- UK arrivals by air were down 15% in March.
With approximately 180,000 fewer visitors than the corresponding period, Las Vegas saw a 5.1% drop in visitor numbers during April 2025. The latest figures follow a 7.8% decline in March numbers, a massive 12% drop in February and a smaller decrease in January.
The number of people visiting the famous city, the epicentre of casino gambling, is down by 6.5% for the first four months of 2025. The figure will not be official until the end of June, but nothing suggests the trend found its way out of negative territory in May.
Vegas Room Sales Down but Prices Up
Unsurprisingly, driven by events like WrestleMania and 23 trade shows, Las Vegas convention attendance surged by 13.9% in April. Five hundred seventy-four thousand people came to Las Vegas for business.
Nevertheless, hotel occupancy fell slightly (to 84.5% capacity), and average room rates increased by 4.4%. A night on the Strip now averages out at $203.17 a night.
While there were five% fewer visitors in April, Las Vegas Strip gaming revenue declined by only 2.9%. Casino and gambling statistics worldwide suggests that live casino gamblers are staking more than ever before.
Vegas Airport Numbers Nosedive
It is not only hotels and casinos that have reported a drop in numbers. Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas facilitated a record-breaking 58.4 million passengers in 2024. Early 2025 has been a very different story.
Passenger traffic dropped significantly in February 2025, with a 7.5% decrease. The shortfall consisted of a 6.9% drop in domestic traffic while international traffic plummeted by 19.6%. During the first quarter of 2025, overall numbers were down 3.7%.
Job Losses on the Vegas Strip
Will this downturn result in wholesale job losses? At the end of March, Resorts World Las Vegas, a 3,506-room hotel and casino, issued a statement confirming it had laid off 50 full-time staff.
The “decision is part of our ongoing efforts to optimize efficiency and maximize the exceptional experience we seek to deliver to our guests,”. an official announcement read.
In April, MGM Resorts, owner of some of the world’s biggest hotels, reported 34 employees at six of its Las Vegas properties, mainly concierge staff, were losing their jobs due to what the company referred to as “streamlining”.
This week, it has been reported that the Fontainebleau, a $3.7 billion resort on the Vegas Strip that opened in December 2023, has laid off as many as 60 dealing staff. “We continue to evaluate our business needs and adjust our hiring strategy accordingly,”. The hotel said in a vague statement.
In what some might see as an aggressive contra approach to secure jobs, The Plaza Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas has announced it is offering all-inclusive hotel room packages for the summer season, with rates starting at a discounted $125 per person per night.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows the Las Vegas area’s unemployment rate was 5.2% in April 2025. The figure is 1.3 percentage points higher than the national average and almost 1% higher than the pre-pandemic (February 2020) number.
Vegas’ Biggest Loss Is the International Tourist
Several factors have been blamed for Las Vegas’s diminishing figures and pressures on its job market. A drop in international tourist visits to the United States in 2025 must be high on the list.
Condé Nast Traveler, a website and a magazine that provides expert travel guides and news, recently highlighted Canada and several European countries had issued travel advisories for the US during the early months of 2025.
It said new international arrivals data for March showed a sharp decline, with UK visitors down 15% compared to last year. The number of German visitors dipped by a seismic 22%.
Cntraveler.com states: “The most significant impact is being seen from Canada, as more Canadians are boycotting travel to America since March when then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told citizens to prioritize domestic travel ahead of peak summer travel season.”
The US is projected to lose $12.5 billion in travel spending this year, according to a new report from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) released this week. It cites a 22.5% decrease from peak spending, falling to $169 billion from 2024’s $181 billion.
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Las Vegas welcomed approximately 41.7 million tourists in 2024. 12% were international visitors, equating to roughly five million. Of these, more than half were from Canada and Mexico.
