Record crowds expected in Las Vegas for ‘America’s Party’ kickoff

Records are expected to be broken, both in visitation and on the roads for Las Vegas’ New Year’s Eve celebration next week.

When the “America’s Party 2026” kicks off on the early morning of Jan. 1, 340,000 people are expected to pack the city to ring in the new year.

“I think that 340,000 visitors this year may be a record,” said Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Steve Hill. “When we’re full, we’re in the 330,000-335,000 range. For New Year’s Eve, we get a little more full. We get a few more people per room.”

The Las Vegas hotel room inventory is slightly down from where it was when 2025 began last year. The estimated 150,126 rooms is down from the 150,325 that existed in January as the city hasn’t recovered from the 2024 closures of the Tropicana and The Mirage.

Hard Rock International will reopen in The Mirage’s space in the second half of 2027, and Bally’s Corp. still hasn’t announced anything firm for the Tropicana site, where a Major League Baseball stadium is being built for the Athletics.

Room rate survey

A record turnout for fewer hotel rooms gives a pricing advantage to the resorts, and a survey of room rates conducted last week shows prices well above the average price for a room last January.

Based on a survey of rooms at 111 properties from Hotels.com conducted by the Review-Journal on Friday, the average cost of a room per night from Dec. 31 through Jan. 4 is $293.82.

In the same survey, from 19 downtown Las Vegas properties, the average price was $194.79 a night.

The LVCVA reported this year that the January average rate was $201.48 on the Strip and $95.01 downtown.

While the survey indicated there were rooms available for under $100 a night throughout Las Vegas, the high-end resorts were taking full advantage of supply and demand.

The highest rate in the survey was $1,252 a night at MGM Grand.

Other properties with higher-than-usual rates included $657 a night at Palazzo, $590 a night at Four Seasons, $565 at Fontainebleau, $558 at Waldorf Astoria, $533 at Bellagio, $483 at Aria, $449 at Green Valley Ranch, $447 at Durango, $400 at Vdara and $373 a night at The Venetian.

In downtown Las Vegas, the highest rate was $337 a night at Circa.

But bargain hunters could still find cheap rates elsewhere. Rooms were going for $61 a night at Circus Circus, $65 a night at Arizona Charlie’s Boulder, $96 at South Point, $94 at Sam’s Town and $93 at Silver Sevens. In downtown, a room could be rented for $112 a night at Golden Gate.

Record holiday travel

AAA is forecasting record travel during a 13-day holiday travel period running from Dec. 20 through Jan. 1. In that time frame, the national travel company forecast 122.4 million people would travel 50 miles or more during the period that includes Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

AAA projects 109.5 million will travel by car, a 2 percent increase over last year. The organization also said 8.03 million would travel by plane, 2.3 percent more than last year.

The estimates were made before this week’s weather forecast, which called for heavy rain along the West Coast that affected travel from Southern California to Las Vegas leading into Christmas. Long-range forecasts predict partly cloudy skies with chances for showers in Las Vegas leading into New Year’s Eve.

AAA lists Las Vegas as the 10th-most popular holiday destination this year, trailing No. 1 Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida. The rest of the list includes Los Angeles/Anaheim, Honolulu, Tampa, New York City, Maui, and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Las Vegas, with its massive eight-minute fireworks and choreographed drone light show along the Strip and in downtown Las Vegas, is expected to be a huge draw for Las Vegas. Tourism leaders and representatives of Fireworks by Grucci previewed the America’s Party 2026 show lineup last week.

The LVCVA’s Hill said Las Vegas is “the place to be to celebrate the New Year and it’s really great to be able to bring all of those people to Las Vegas for that party.”

The New Year’s festivities are expected to be a rousing kickoff to what promises to be a record year for conventions, trade shows and meetings in Las Vegas in 2026.

It’ll start Jan. 6-9 with CES, followed by the World of Concrete, the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoors Trade Show, the International Surface Event 2026 and the International World Market Center shows, plus four others all coming in January with total expected attendance exceeding 374,500.

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