Question of the Day - 07 November 2017

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has been conducting annual visitor surveys for many years, so there's a consistent source of data to consult and compare against. Last April, the LVCVA released its Las Vegas Visitor Profile Survey for 2016.

In 2016, 42.94 million people visited Las Vegas. Of those, 27%, or roughly 11.6 million, were first-timers. That number was up significantly over recent years, during which the number of first-time visitors had remained fairly consistent: 16% in 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2015, with a low of 15% in 2013 and a high of 19% in 2014. 

Regarding the purpose of their trip, first-time visitors were significantly more likely than repeat visitors to be visiting Las Vegas primarily for vacation or pleasure (65% for first-timers vs. 48% for repeats); 8% were here to attend a convention, while 2% were in town for a special event or a business purpose other than a convention or corporate meeting.

The rest of the reasons were to visit relatives/friends (8%), pass through (7%), attend a wedding (5%), or gamble (3%, compared to 5% of repeat visitors).  

These stats confirm what's been known for many years: Gambling win is no longer the leading source of income for many properties, which now rely as much on income from their nightclubs, retail, restaurants, shows, and special events as from their casinos.

As for why there was such a big jump of first-timers in 2016 over the recent past, the Visitor Profile Study noted that about 34% of the almost 43 million visitors to Las Vegas in 2016 were Millennials, up from 24% in 2015. The younger the visitor, the less likely he or she is to have visited before. 

Steve Cyr, the long-time casino host and subject of Deke Castleman's Whale Hunt in the Desert, sums it up as follows: "Vegas is totally hip to the kids now. It's like the hometown mall, where the teenagers go to see and be seen. When you turn twenty-one, you graduate to Vegas, baby."