How successful was the ‘Fabulous’ Las Vegas sale?

The public may never know exactly how successful September’s “Fabulous Five-Day Sale” was because many of the resorts that offered deals consider sales numbers to be proprietary information.

Anecdotally, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Steve Hill said resort executives have said the unprecedented five-day sale was a success with higher numbers of bookings.

MGM Resorts International President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle, in a licensing appearance before the Nevada Gaming Control Board earlier this month quantified some of the sale results.

“Normally we (sell) 150,000 or 160,000 room nights a week in terms of reservations,” he said in testimony during the Control Board hearing. “We did just under 300,000 (during the sale). So the idea that Las Vegas as a marketplace that people find attractive is compromised. We’re not buying it. We look forward to investing here to continue to grow this market.”

Hill said there’s no reason to believe other resort companies didn’t have similar results.

But as far as Las Vegas exposure, the early indications are that resorts reached greater numbers than expected with the average weekly web traffic on visitlasvegas.com drawing four times the weekly average, making September the second-busiest month ever for the website.

Chief Marketing Officer Kate Wik offered details about results of the campaign Tuesday to the LVCVA board of directors.

Wik said as a result of the campaign, Las Vegas received more than 720 earned media placements — stories or visuals it didn’t have to pay for — 120 times the weekly average of referrals to resorts and attractions, and a 6-point percentage increase in positive travel sentiment compared with the 2025 average.

LVCVA visitation statistics lag by about a month so September visitation numbers won’t be produced until the end of October, and October statistics, which could show some of the results of the campaign, are not due until the end of November.

The sale, conducted Sept. 22-26, was directed mostly toward individual travel consumers, but LVCVA Chief Sales Officer Vanessa Claspill said group sales and conventions also were higher in September.

Claspill said 252 group leads were sent to resorts resulting in an estimated 529,000 room nights. There were 156 confirmed bookings, a 25 percent increase from September 2024, and 418,000 confirmed room nights, a 19 percent increase from last year.

Of those confirmed bookings, 38 percent were new to Las Vegas, a 7 percent increase compared with September 2024.

LVCVA officials have said that due to the success of the “Fabulous” campaign, another sale may occur in the future.

IShowSpeed visit

Wik also told the board that the LVCVA headed off a potential PR bruise when they got a tip that influential YouTuber IShowSpeed was paying a visit to Las Vegas as part of a U.S. tour. Wik said Speed, as he is known, has a following rivaling pop icon Taylor Swift and on previous stops had inspired “bad headlines” for destinations.

“Our goal was to make sure that we were proactively managing this and partnering with this team to completely fill his itinerary with unbelievable Vegas experiences, but to also keep him focused and engaged and entertained the entire 20 hours he was here,” Wik said.

The LVCVA routinely pays influencers to visit Las Vegas to assure a positive spin on the city to the millions of social media followers who watch on YouTube, TikTok and other social media sites. LVCVA officials have not said how much they pay influencers.

Hill said the LVCVA paid influencers “a couple million” last fiscal year and the budgeted amount is similar this year.

World Routes event

On the international travel front, Hill said representatives of the LVCVA and Harry Reid International Airport just completed participation in World Routes 2025 in Hong Kong, an opportunity for destinations to meet directly with airline executives to consider new flights.

Las Vegas was recognized as the top destination at this year’s meeting, which was slowed by a typhoon that hit the city.

Hill had no announcements about new international flights that could be headed Las Vegas’ way, but going into the meetings local officials have been working on a return of nonstop flights between Tokyo and Reid International.

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