Vegas Visitation Falls 11.3% in June, First Double-Digit Decline Since Pandemic

• Las Vegas recorded its first double-digit decline in tourist visitation since February 2021
• Visitation has been down every month so far this year compared to 2024
• Economic uncertainty, nickel-and-diming by casino corporations, and increased competition are some of the reasons for the downturn 

Las Vegas visitation fell for the sixth straight month in June — but even more precipitously, logging its first double-digit decline since February 2021.

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), 3.1 million tourists visited in June. That’s an 11.3% decline, representing 394,900 people who decided not to become Las Vegas visitors.

Foot traffic on the Strip is also lower, according to phone-tracking data from Placer.ai. And, hotel occupancy fell by 14.6% last month compared with June 2024, according to data from CoStar.

A Special Kind of Bad News

June’s year-over-year visitation decline is the first to achieve double digits since only 1.5 million tourists visited in February 2021, which was a year-over-year decline of 53.8%.

Convention cancellations are partially responsible. Convention visitation fell 10.7% in June in part because InfoComm and Cisco Live decided to invite their nearly 50K combined attendees to meet in Orlando and San Diego instead.

The LVCVA pins the decline on “the broader backdrop of persistent economic uncertainty and weaker consumer confidence.”

The prevailing consensus also blames nickel-and-diming by gaming corporations, casino options now available in nearly every state, and fewer Canadian tourists due to fear of (or political opposition to) US travel.

In 2024, Canadians comprised 3.6% of total Vegas visitors, or 1.49 million out of 41.7 million.

In June, the number of Canadians flying to Harry Reid International fell around a third compared to last year, with all international arrivals declining by 9.8%, and even domestic passenger numbers down 6.1%.

All told, 400K fewer people flew to Las Vegas in June than in the same month in 2024. Year to date, total passenger numbers are down 4.1%. That’s 1,191,377 fewer Las Vegas arrivals than in the first half of 2024.

I was planning to attend a trade show there early next year, not anymore,” read a July 31 post from X user @spetersaunders, a Toronto resident who blamed “politics and border hassles.”

And, in an indirect but revealing measure of the downturn, 5.8% of the workforce in Las Vegas (a town reliant on tourism to function) was out of work in June, marking the second monthly jump and making Nevada the state with the nation’s highest unemployment.