Las Vegas room tax, gaming fee revenue down affecting tourism agency’s budget

The decline in tourism has put a dent in the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s revenue stream with room tax and gaming fee receipts down 14 percent from a year ago in the first quarter of the 2025-26 fiscal year.

LVCVA Chief Financial Officer Jim McIntosh told board members Wednesday a drop was anticipated — but not as much as what occurred and a robust convention calendar in early 2026 should help toward a rebound.

Board members didn’t comment on a quarterly report presented Wednesday that said room tax and gaming fee receipts are off 14 percent to $73.9 million for the quarter, while Las Vegas Convention Center space rentals are down 9 percent to $6.8 million and Las Vegas Monorail farebox receipts are off 13 percent to $5.7 million for the quarter.

Overall, quarterly revenue is down 14 percent to $91 million.

LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill said the reason for the tourism slump is a general uncertainty about the nation’s economy that is prompting a pullback in discretionary spending.

“You can open any publication any given day and see a story about housing construction that really affects everybody who builds houses,” Hill said.

“The auto industry is concerned about the impact of tariffs on what’s going to happen in the auto industry. All of that affects people. It may not directly affect their pocketbook, but it certainly affects their concern about the future, the uncertainty that they may have, and it causes them to make the decision to postpone discretionary items at times,” he said.

In addition to there being fewer visitors to Las Vegas in 2025 — LVCVA statistics show visitation down 7.9 percent for the year to 28.9 million — occupancy rates and the average daily room rate are down as well. Occupancy is down 3.3 percentage points to 80.4 percent from last year, and the average daily room rate is off 5.1 percent to $180.07 a night.

Those figures contribute to the overall slump and are the worst since the 2022 fiscal year when the nation was rebounding from COVID-19 shutdowns.

McIntosh noted that the LVCVA’s marketing team already has reacted to the downturn with an advertising and marketing campaign that began in late September and already has been deemed successful for the number of consumers it reached. The “Fabulous Las Vegas” campaign, punctuated with an unprecedented five-day sale of hotel rooms, restaurants and attractions, featured a widely broadcast 60-second advertising message that has aired frequently since it debuted in early September.

Paid media influencers have been active online to boost the city as a value proposition, and the ride-sharing area at Harry Reid International Airport has featured special lighting, entertainment and appearances on several days in the past month.

In other LVCVA business Wednesday, board members unanimously approved paying Westgate Las Vegas $300,000 to allow LVCVA employees and “ambassadors” to park at the resort adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center during busy conventions and trade shows.

The request for additional parking was spurred by the upcoming appearance of ConExpo-Con/Agg, a massive construction trade show on the convention calendar every three years, in March.

Much of the onsite parking areas at the Convention Center will be used for outdoor exhibits of that show.

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