How many people visit Las Vegas each year?

How many people visit Las Vegas every year?

The estimate you’ll hear most often is about 40 million a year.

That’s the ballpark amount the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has seen since about 2007, just before the Great Recession hit and jump-started marketing programs designed to build the total higher.

Since 1970, when the LVCVA estimated the city had 6.8 million visitors, to 2020, the annual total grew in all but four years – 1980 and 1981, when there was a mini-recession – and 2001 and 2002, the years of and following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C.

Visitation grew to 39.2 million in 2007. But after that, travel to Las Vegas fell and had to be built up all over again.

After lulls in 2008-2013, the city finally got rolling with six consecutive years over 40 million. Southern Nevada peaked in 2016 when the all-time record of 42.9 million people arrived.

The city flirted with record numbers the next three years, but then COVID-19 hit the world and visitation took a big dive when the state’s resorts were closed 78 days in 2020. Visitation plummeted to 19 million that year, but ever since, it has been growing past the 40 million level. In 2024, the city recorded 41.7 million guests.

The LVCVA has other metrics it reviews every month to develop a well-rounded picture of Las Vegas tourism indicators.

The organization monitors convention attendance as a key component to visitation and manages the Las Vegas Convention Center. Two other convention facilities – the Mandalay Bay Convention Center and The Venetian Expo – give Las Vegas the largest amount of convention space in North America.

According to LVCVA statistics, the city’s biggest convention year was 2019, when 6.6 million convention attendees came to Las Vegas.

After 2020’s COVID-19 setback (1.7 million conventioneers that year), Las Vegas has started to bounce back with totals ranging from 5 million to 6 million a year. The total in 2024 was 6 million.

The LVCVA also tracks and monitors room occupancy percentages, hotel room tax receipts, passenger totals at Harry Reid International Airport, the average number of motor vehicles crossing into Nevada at the California border on Interstate 15 and Clark County gaming win.

In 2024, Las Vegas had the highest amount of room tax receipts ($384 million), Reid airport passengers (58.4 million) and Clark County gaming win ($13.6 billion).

The highest number of daily vehicle traffic on I-15 occurred in the COVID bounce-back year of 2021 when the Nevada Department of Transportation estimated an average 48,047 vehicles daily on I-15. NDOT does not differentiate between local and tourist vehicles crossing the border.

In 2024, the average was 44,072 a day.

The LVCVA also calculates occupancy rates for weekends, midweek and overall based on the number of hotel rooms in the inventory, which changes from year to year with resort openings and closings.

Las Vegas had its highest room inventory in 2023 (156,100) before Tropicana and The Mirage closed. Inventory last year was calculated at 150,211.

The highest midweek occupancy rate for a year was 88.7 percent, reached in 1996 and 2007. The highest weekend occupancy rate for a year was 95 percent, reached in 2004, 2005 and 2016. The highest blended rate for a year was 90.4 percent, reached in 1996 and 2007.

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