Latest Las Vegas Visitor “Study” Unearths “Mind-Blowing” “Facts” “Galore”

By Scott Roeben, on March 17 2025
6 min read 8 comments
Las Vegas

When the annual Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study is released, it generates an excitement akin to that scene where the telephone book arrives in “The Jerk,” a reference approximately 4% of our fellow youths get, so moving on.

The 2024 Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study is neither a profile nor a study, but rather a reliably unreliable survey of 5,418 Las Vegas visitors, the vast majority of whom were hung over when they were surveyed.

Let’s take a shallow dive into the 2024 Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study, shan’t we? Here are 25 fun nuggets of trivia night knowledge extracted from the survey, curated and bespoke by us, personally, despite our aversion to reading.

It’s not a tumor. It’s not a tumor, at all. Google “Kindergarten Cop,” fellow youths.

1. The number of first-time visitors decreased.

Just 14% of those surveyed were visiting Las Vegas for the first time in 2024. It was 16% in 2023 and 24% in 2022. We blame F1.

2. The average number of visits decreased.

The average number of visits to Las Vegas in 2024 for all the visitors surveyed was 1.8, down from two visits a year in 2022 and 2023. We blame commoditization (gambling is now legal across the country) and the fact a whole pie at Pin-Up Pizza is $80.

3. Just 2% of visitors said sports were the main reason for their visit to Las Vegas.

So much for the “Las Vegas is a sports mecca!” narrative. Enough sports, already. Sports don’t move the needle, and that includes sports betting, which adds very little to the bottom line of casinos. Sports are a non-thing and tax dollars should not be devoted to building sports venues or putting patches on baseball uniforms unless they are in some way ridiculing the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

4. Gen Z visitors (ages 21-27) were 7% of visitors in 2024 and Millennial visitors (ages 28-43) represented nearly half of 2024 visitors (46%). Gen X visitors (44-59) were more than a third of visitors (38%).

Why so few of our fellow youths? A lack of disposable income, a desire for unique experiences slot machines don’t provide, online gaming, the perception of casinos, new forms of interactivity and F1.

5. Nearly a quarter of visitors (23%) visited for a special personal occasion.

Yes, cheating on your wife is a “special occasion.”

6. Half of visitors who came to Las Vegas for a special occasion were here for a birthday.

Please stop wearing “It’s my birthday!” sashes. It’s thirsty and legally considered panhandling.

Congrats on existing for another year.

7. Ten percent of visitors said they did work during their visit, down from previous years.

F The Man.

8. About half of visitors (54%) arrived by ground, the other arrived by air (46%).

Seriously, nobody’s walking? Slackers.

9. About one-half (52%) of those surveyed visited downtown Las Vegas, down from last year.

We love downtown and did the social marketing for Fremont Street Experience until 2020. We blame the recent decline in people visiting downtown on the pickle tub drummers, the price of chicken parm at Triple George, El Portal being used as a video arcade, Chelsea being given nights off at Oscar’s, the deafening volume of the stages on Fremont Street and F1.

Aside from the items above, the slots downtown are now tighter than The Strip. Downtown slots hold 8.47%, Strip slots hold 8.03%. This was not the case prior to F1 being in Las Vegas, probably.

10. Four percent (4%) of visitors used a travel agent in planning their trip.

Pre-pandemic, 10% used a travel agent. Time to update those LinkedIn pages, travel agents.

11. Nearly seven in 10 (69%) visitors stayed on The Strip.

If you thought we weren’t going to share a stat featuring 69%, you do not know this blog at all.

12. Average nightly room rates in 2024 reached a new high at $179.10.

On the bright side, F1 actually lowered the average room rate in 2024 due to a lack of interest and rates falling off a cliff, so there’s that.

13. Visitors stayed an average of 3.4 nights.

Quitters.

14. In upbeat news, parties with someone under 21 in 2024 decreased from last year (13% vs. 16%).

This is down significantly from 2021 when 21% of respondents said they brought kids. Our whining has had the desired effect, clearly. In related news, “parties with someone under 21” is still frowned upon in Las Vegas, despite the fact Nevada’s age of consent is 16. How is everyone fine with that? That’s the kind of crap that should be in surveys: “How O.K. are you with 16 being the age of consent in Nevada, and while we’re at it, how to you feel about intimacy with barnyard fowl and did you know bestiality wasn’t made illegal in Nevada until 2017 and WTF is wrong with people?” We should definitely get into the survey business.

Asking the awkward questions nobody really wanted the answers to.

15. About 78% of visitors gambled during their stay.

That’s the spirit.

16. The average amount of time spent gambling was 2.5 hours.

Total? Over 3.4 nights? We rarely hit our first quad before we’re four hours in. No wonder people think they’re losing money gambling, they aren’t dedicated enough.

17. The overall gambling budget was $820.15.

That stat is a little murky. We trust the question is, “What was your budget for gambling during your stay?” A budget doesn’t mean much, though. Was that how much the player ultimately spent? If they won, did the budget increase? Are markers (casino credit) figured into this? We have questions.

Shout-out to the locals (not included in the survey) laughing at these numbers right now.

18. Spending on food and drinks reached an all-time high in 2024 ($615.07).

Oof. We hear from legions of Las Vegas visitors who say they’ve been priced out of Las Vegas. It’s still a great value, you just have to know where to look.

We’d like to speak to the people who spent nothing. They are not invited back.

19. About 21% of visitors in 2024 attended shows or entertainment during their visit, down from 26% in 2023.

This is really, really bad news for traditional Las Vegas production shows. Cirque is likely to file bankruptcy (again), we’re blaming Sphere and superstar residencies.

20. About 97% of visitors surveyed said they were “very satisfied” (87%) or “somewhat satisfied” (10%) with their visit to Las Vegas in 2024.

Before the pandemic, 94% of those surveyed said they were “very satisfied.” We blame the Green Door.

21. Virtually all (98%) international visitors said they were “very satisfied” with their trip.

We blame the fact most of these respondents didn’t understand the question because it was in a different language.

22. Of those surveyed in 2024, 75% are “extremely likely” or “very likely” to visit Las Vegas again.

That’s down significantly from 87% in 2022. The first F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix was in 2023. Related stat: Our informal survey of Las Vegas visitors showed 115% of people agree anything that blocks the Bellagio fountains for four months has got to go. Hello, you either trust the science or you don’t.

23. Las Vegas visitors are more ethnically diverse.

The survey shows higher percentages of visitors who are African-American (15% of respondents, it was 9% in 2019), Asian or Asian-American (6%, compared to 3% in 2019) and Hispanic/Latino visitors (15%, just 11% in 2019, but down from 19% in 2021) compared to pre-pandemic results. No jokes here, we have already been canceled 46.2 times this week.

24. The number of visitors from abroad (12%) remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Hey, it was 3% in 2021.

25. Just 2% of Las Vegas visitors were from Utah.

Do you realize how much it costs to bring seven wives and eight children to Las Vegas with these prices? Please submit all requests for our cancellation in triplicate to your mom who we’ll be spending time with during her next Las Vegas visit.

Dinner at Bacchanal Buffet for this family would cost about $1,040. Plus tip.

So, that’s all the news that’s fit to print from the 2024 Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study, the only published survey about travelers and traveler trends in Las Vegas. Which comes from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the agency whose existence and executive bonuses are based upon the perception things in Las Vegas are rosy and everyone is deeply satisfied with their Las Vegas experience. Nothing to see here!

If you hate reading, here’s an audio overview of the 2024 Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study, courtesy of two of our future robot overlords.

A wonky survey doesn’t mean people aren’t satisfied. Most people are having a blast.

Such surveys, however, help obfuscate legitimate concerns being expressed by travelers about Las Vegas.

A better gauge of the perception of Las Vegas can be found on any social media platform, the best focus groups ever conceived. It’s good to chat with Las Vegas visitors, but surveys have lots of variables that can distort the results.

Social media is raw, and tends to be a lot more negative. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

The LVCVA’s annual survey is still a fun diversion and holds sway with casino operators who take the results with a grain of salt, as should we all.