Las Vegas keeps reaching record heights in every possible aspect, and the number of visitors to the city is definitely one of them. After three quarters of 2019, it seems that this year’s visitation has been threatening to break some records.
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority released a summary of September’s visitation, displaying that the city has reached new heights when it comes to the number of people who decided to go to the Entertainment Capital of the World in the past nine months.
In fact, the summary showed some numbers that made history, shutting the mouths of those who claim that the days of Las Vegas are long gone. In fact, according to the summary, it seems that Vegas’ best days are yet to come, as the number of people has never been higher than in the period from January to September 2019.
The visitor volume, which was summed up at the end of September 2019 for the first nine months of the year, was 31.9 million people. If we compare it to the same period of 2018, we can see that there is an increase of 0.6 percent. It may not seem like much on the paper, but it real life, that’s a big upward swing.
On the other hand, the total number of people who visited Vegas in 2018 was 42.1 million, meaning more than 10 million people need to make it to Vegas by the end of the year in order to place 2019 in front of 2018 overall.
Theoretically speaking, this is possible, but many analysts believe that the year of 2019 will not be able to crack the record of 2016 when a total of 42.9 million visitors went to Vegas (this was the all-time high).
Other Records
Las Vegas is also likely to set annual records in three categories this time, which include occupancy rates, daily room rates, and convention attendance.
Convention attendance is currently measured to be 5.165 million, and the record was set at 6.646 million back in 2017. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, there’s room for 2019 to become the new record year in this category.
On the other hand, November and December are not really months when people go to Vegas in order to visit conventions, so they are traditionally weak in this aspect.
The citywide occupancy is also predicted by the LVCVA to break the record in 2019. It is very difficult to make accurate calculations regarding this, as the number of available rooms in Vegas is not constant. In fact, it changes almost all the time as new ones appear and old ones are put out of order.
At the moment, the level of occupancy is 89.2 percent, and it is 1.2 percent close to breaking the record. However, December is usually not the month occupancy is high in Las Vegas, even though there are important events such as the National Finals Rodeo (and the fact that many people go there to celebrate the New Year).
On the other hand, 2020 has big potential to improve in December’s occupancy, mainly because Allegiant Stadium will be opened, and the NFL’s Raiders will be able to play home games. In other words, people will visit Vegas in order to enjoy the sport and improve the overall December room occupancy.
Finally, according to the LVCVA, Las Vegas has already hit the record when it comes to the average daily room rate. The rate is $132.87 a night, which is the same as it was back in 2007. However, LVCVA did not calculate the additional fees, which are between $15 and $55, so technically, the year of 2019 currently leads when it comes to the average daily room rate.
