Were the 400,000 Estimated NYE Visitors Considered a Lot?

I read that 400,000 people were in town for New Year’s Eve, but I got to thinking, is that a lot? Sounds like a lot, but how does it compare to the electronic convention or the national rodeo show?

Yes, 400,000 visitors to Las Vegas for the New Year's weekend are, in fact, a lot.

Actually, it's the largest estimated crowd for New Year's Eve, the busiest night of the year in Las Vegas, that we've ever seen. How accurate it was is anyone's guess, but as Anthony Curtis said in the LVA weekly YouTube update, "I'm taking the under." We haven't seen any official numbers released, but the usual number cited for NYE is 300,000-325,000.

By comparison, the 2022 National Finals Rodeo attracted 173,350 spectators; it was up from 169,539 in 2021. Of course, that's spread over the 10 days of the tournament, so the crowds are much less concentrated than on the Strip and downtown on the last night of the year. Nearly 280,000 people took in the concurrent Cowboy Christmas shopping event at the Convention Center, again over the 10 days. Still, the 40,894 shoppers who showed up on Dec. 3 set a Cowboy Christmas record for single-day attendance, but that's a little less than 10% of the estimated NYE crowd.

This year's CES saw upwards of 110,000 attendees, more than twice as many as 2022, though a far cry from the 182,000 in 2018 and 175,000 in 2019.

Historically, the second largest trade show has been the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), which attracted 160,000 people in the automotive, truck and SUV, powersports and RV markets, pre-pandemic.

ConExpo/ConAGG gathered 130,000 in 2019, while the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) usually attracted 100,000-plus attendees to its trade show in April.

The National Football League announced that 300,000 people attended the NFL Draft in Las Vegas in 2022 over the three days of the event. That, as we mentioned, is the typical size of the New Year's crowd. So 400,000 is quite a bit more than the biggest crowds Las Vegas has ever seen.

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Comments

Ray Jan-18-2023

But how many TOTAL visitors?

It looks like the numbers you quote are for the shows themselves but not the total numbers of visitors to town those days (or weeks or weekends). I understand that everyone in town on New Year is there for New Year, but when other shows are in town, more than just that show is going on. A better question might be "How many rooms, pure numbers and percentages, are rented when these events occur".

rokgpsman Jan-18-2023

Crowd size

If the estimated size of the New Years Eve crowd was done by police or whoever by simply looking at the crowds mingling about on the Strip then I'm not sure I'd label them as "visitors" (implying tourists). With over 2 million people living in the greater Las Vegas area I'd guess many on the Strip that nite were locals and not "visitors". Perhaps a better estimate of tourist visitors would be a count of the hotel room bookings, airport arrivals, hwy traffic, or something like that.

Bobq Jan-18-2023

Bobq

Personally, I don't care how many people are there on NYE or any other day. I have officially given up on Vegas. I'll leave it to the youngsters that don't know how to gamble but they love to party, and don't seem to realize they will have to pay off those credit cards eventually. I can find playable games at local casino's. It took me awhile to realize that I may leave ahead as a gambler but the rest of the money I was spending for air fare, car rental, room and food for one week made me a looser. As long as people keep throwing their money away the the cast will continue to sky rocket.

Doozey Jan-18-2023

what did Trump say?

"I had more people" Kari Lake says she had more votes than people.

Question of the Day - 18 January 2023

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