The report showed that more people were visiting Las Vegas for the first time and that the average age was younger. It said that visitors in the 20 to 30 group now account for one third of all tourists, up from a quarter two years ago. Additionally, 27 % of visitors were in Las Vegas for the first time, an 11 % increase from 2015.
Kevin Bagger, Executive Director of the
LVCVA Research Center, said: "We’re attracting more first-time visitors to the
destination, and those visitors are younger and more diverse than in years
past. We also saw growth in the number of non-gaming visitors.”
"However, the visitors who did participate in gaming budgeted to spend more on
gaming than in previous years,” Bagger added.
In 2016 Las Vegas enjoyed record-breaking
visitation for a third year in a row with 42.9 million visitors, and local
tourism had an estimated local economic impact of US$ 60 billion. For the 23rd
year in a row, Las Vegas was named as the No. 1 trade show destination in the
country by Trade Show News Network, with 57 of the 250 largest trade shows,
which is more shows than the next two destinations – Orlando and Chicago –
hosted combined.
The average Las Vegas visitor is 44 years old, is more likely to be married (70
%), a college graduate (49 %), and has a household income above US$ 40,000 (73 %).
International tourism accounted for
approximately 19 % of overall visitation, up from 16 % in 2015, while roughly
one-third of domestic visitors came from California.
Source: GMB / G3 Newswire
