Las Vegas visitor numbers: Dollars and cents

Hollywood gets a lot of mileage out of portraying Las Vegas as a perpetual party -- especially for people about to get married.

But the reality is much more humdrum.

Nearly 80 percent of the visitors are married and the average age is 49, according to the newly released 2010 edition of the annual visitors profile commissioned by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. More than one-fourth of the people were retired and 71 percent were at least 40, numbers that have been consistent for several years.

Instead of tourists for whom parts of their trip will be blank spots, Terrance Plummer of Cocoa Beach, Fla., is closer to the norm. He came for a week with his wife, 15-year-old son on high school spring break and another couple.

"He wanted to see all the lights," said Plummer, as he watched his son glide down the zip-line ride on Fremont Street. "You can't beat this place for all the action, all the light shows and fountains and even the free shows."

Said Kevin Bagger, the authority's senior director of marketing, "We mirror the larger national baby boomer demographic."

The convention authority's visitor profiles for 2010 come from in-person interviews with 3,600 people at their places of lodging who were offered souvenirs if they went through the list of 66 questions. Each of the participants had less than one day left before departing.

The survey also echoed several other industry benchmarks that show a nascent, if muted, recovery for the visitor industry. Average nongaming spending per person, per trip, rose from $590 in 2009 to $645 last year, partially offset by a decline in gambling.

As he sat for a caricaturist at the Fremont Street Experience, Norm Flitter of Seward, Alaska, fit the mold.

Visiting for the second year in a row, this time in a group of eight, Flitter noted, "Last time, I came with a little tighter budget. This year was better so we can spend more."

Some of the 2010 survey's other conclusions noted:

■ Gambling put Las Vegas on the map, figuratively and literally, but has steadily declined in importance. Since 2006, the number of people who say they dropped money in the casinos has dropped 7 percentage points to 80 percent, while the average wagering allowance has gone down 28 percent, per trip, to $466.20. In 2006, it was $651.94. Unlike many of the other numbers in the survey, which have fluctuated with the national economy, gambling's contribution has diminished consistently.

Meanwhile, high rollers were in shorter supply. Those who allowed themselves at least $600 for gambling sank from 30 percent four years ago to 19 percent in the most recent survey. At the same time, those in several brackets below $400 all showed increases.

■ The attempts to lure more foreigners, who tend to stay longer and spend more, made some headway with the share rising 5 percentage points from 2006 to 18 percent. This came not only in conjunction with authority marketing efforts but the falling value of the dollar against other currencies and the start of British Airways nonstop flights to London, with connections to other cities in Europe.

■ The share of people who will "definitely" return to Las Vegas has fallen from the peak of 45 percent in 2007 to 34 percent, while the numbers of "probables" and "maybes" went up. Bagger attributed this to a general reluctance of people to plan far ahead when compared with the past because of an unsettled economy.

■ The percentage of complaints about hotels jumped from 21 percent in 2006 to 40 percent last year. However, this was based on a sample of 39 people who gave detailed reasons for why they were unhappy with Las Vegas vacations.

■ A growing number of people forgo travel agents and make their own arrangements through the Internet. Still, the use of hotel websites declined from 40 percent in 2006 to 27 percent last year. By contrast, 65 percent of visitors bought plane tickets through airline websites.

Contact reporter Tim O'Reiley at toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.