Visitation to Southern Nevada falls 11.3% in June

Visitation to Southern Nevada fell for the sixth straight month in June with the first double-digit percentage decline since February 2021.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Wednesday said 3.1 million people visited the region in June, an 11.3 percent decline. The last time year-over-year comparisons fell by double digits was when February 2021’s count hit 1.5 million, which was down 53.8 percent from the previous year.

For the year, visitation has been down every month from last year with the decline averaging 7.3 percent to 19.6 million.

Nearly every tourism indicator — except Clark County gaming win — was down in June.

“Reflecting the broader backdrop of persistent economic uncertainty and weaker consumer confidence, compounded by a slower convention month, the destination saw an 11 percent year-over-year decline in visitation,” said Kevin Bagger, vice president of the LVCVA Research Center.

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Bagger noted that convention visitation fell 10.7 percent to 374,600, due in part to conventions that were in Las Vegas in 2024 meeting elsewhere this year. He cited InfoComm (30,000 attendees) and Cisco Live (18,000 attendees) as examples.

The number of occupied room nights fell 9.7 percent to 3.5 million and the hotel occupancy rate was down 6.5 percentage points to 78.7 percent, the lowest level since August 2022 when it hit 76.8 percent. The average daily room rate dropped 6.6 percent to $163.64 a night.

Room rates decline

It was the second straight month of declining room rates, a measure most resort companies work hard to maintain.

Air traffic at Harry Reid International Airport fell for the fifth straight month with the number of passengers down 6.3 percent to 4.7 million. While international arrivals declined by 9.8 percent, domestic travel was also down 6.1 percent.

Arrivals on Canadian air carriers fell by double-digit percentages, but domestic market leader Southwest Airlines eked out a 0.1 percent improvement to 1.9 million passengers. No. 2 Spirit Airlines, struggling after its merger request, plunged 36.8 percent to 463,547 passengers.

There were two bright spots within the tourism indicators. Traffic on major highways into Las Vegas was up 0.9 percent to 139,098 daily vehicles, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation. But the count at the California-Nevada border on Interstate 15 fell 4.3 percent to 46,036 daily vehicles.

The other bright spot: Clark County’s gaming win in June.

For the first time in three years, Nevada’s gaming win totals for the fiscal year aren’t a record amount.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board on Wednesday said gaming win from the state’s 438 largest casinos was up 3.5 percent to $1.332 billion in June.

But the increase wasn’t enough to produce a record for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which ended at $15.64 billion, off 0.8 percent from the previous fiscal year.

Since the 2020-21 fiscal year when Nevada casinos were shut down 79 days during the COVID-19 pandemic, gaming win has grown steadily with record numbers every year.

The streak ended at three with the Control Board’s report Wednesday.

For the month of June, 18 of the 20 markets monitored by the state had higher win amounts than the previous year with the eastern Nevada markets of Elko County and Wendover the only submarkets lagging.

Every Southern Nevada submarket was up over last year in June, including double-digit percentage increases for downtown Las Vegas (up 10.5 percent to $73.2 million) and the Boulder Strip (up 19.3 percent to $87.3 million).

Eight of the 20 submarkets monitored by the state were down for the fiscal year, with the Strip decline of 3 percent to $8.78 billion the second steepest behind South Lake Tahoe (down 3.1 percent to $238.3 million).

For the year, Clark County was off 1 percent to $13.58 billion, while Laughlin fell 2.1 percent to $485.9 million.

Downtown Las Vegas ended the year up 2.1 percent to $933.7 million while outlying Clark County, which includes the high-performing Durango property in southwest Las Vegas, was the highest performing submarket in the state, up 5.3 percent to $1.922 billion.

Clark County dominates gaming

Clark County continued to be the most dominant submarket in the state, winning 86.8 percent of the state’s total. And, the Strip continues to be the strongest submarket within the county, winning 56.1 percent of the state total.

Shelley Newell, senior economic analyst for the Control Board, said Nevada gaming win continues to perform ahead of prepandemic 2019 with June totals 28 percent ahead of June 2019 and that June also represented the 52nd straight month of gaming win in excess of $1 billion.

Newell said sports and entertainment continued to drive visitation with residencies of Rod Stewart, Bruno Mars and Kenny Chesney continuing through the month, Allegiant Stadium hosting a CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer doubleheader and T-Mobile Arena hosting a UFC 317 lightweight bout between Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.