What happens in Vegas … could spell trouble for the U.S. economy.
Empty hotel rooms, half-filled casinos and an overall feeling of dread have cast a pall on this normally bustling mecca of 24-7 entertainment.
There were 11.3% fewer visitors to Las Vegas and 10.7% fewer convention goers in June compared to the same month last year, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recently said.
The decline in Las Vegas tourism is taking money straight out of the pockets of Sin City’s legion of service workers who rely on tips to make ends meet.
Even before counting her dwindling gratuities, ARIA Resort & Casino housekeeper Shaleah Taylor said she can see and feel the drop-off as she now effortlessly navigates the notoriously clogged Spaghetti Bowl, a local freeway interchange that tends to be slammed with traffic.
“Very concerned because it’s slow,” Taylor said. “I drive down the Strip going to work in the morning, and I barely see visitors out there.”
While Las Vegas is rightly seen as a symbol of American excess, there can be a surprisingly straight line connecting The Strip to Main Street.
A similar collapse in tourism came in January 2009 when visitors to Vegas also fell by about 11% compared with the first month of 2008.
That falloff came as America struggled with the 2008-09 housing crisis, which sparked economic misery and brought unemployment to a staggering 10%.
“Las Vegas has tended to be the bellwether for the rest of the country when the business cycle slows down,” said Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The potential reasons behind the latest tourism tumble are numerous.
The soaring prices of hotel rooms and higher gambling minimums at Las Vegas could be driving away middle-class tourists. Gambling, still core to the city’s draw, is now so accessible to many Americans that a costly plane ride and hotel stay in Nevada just isn’t necessary anymore to fuel a gambler’s high.
Geopolitical factors could also be in play here as President Donald Trump launches immigration policies and tariff wars that are unpopular with traditional U.S. allies, such as Canada.
Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley said tourists coming from north of the border — the Silver State’s largest international market — have been staying away in droves, turning a tourism torrent “to a drip.”
Tourists from south of the border are also steering clear.
“We have a number of very high rollers that come in from Mexico that aren’t so keen on coming in right now,” Berkley told reporters this month. “And that seems to be the prevailing attitude internationally.”
Incoming air passenger traffic from Canada to Las Vegas is projected to fall 18.5% from 2024 to this year, according to Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting.
And that’s not just Canada ghosting Las Vegas, as the United States could be looking at an $12.5 billion decline in international tourism this year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
“That’s a long-term relationship, and we’re going to figure that out,” Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill said of Canadian visitors.
Hill acknowledged the snake eye numbers but insisted Las Vegas’ luck will turn soon, calling this period a temporary bump and not a long-term problem.
“We’ve had crises and we have recovered from crises and this is just not that,” Hill said. “It is a downturn.”
If there’s a silver lining to Las Vegas’ 2025 downturn, it’s at the tables. While metrics on travel and hotel stays all pointed down, gaming revenue ticked up.
June-to-June gambling revenue was up by 3.5% in Clark County, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said.
A bulk of that moderate boost came from Boulder Highway (19.3%) and downtown (10.5%) casinos where many locals play — while the tourist-dominated Strip had just a 0.9% gaming revenue increase.