People walk through the lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center during set up for the CES 2022 trade show Monday, Jan. 3, 2022.
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Las Vegas tourism rebound
Nearly 5 million people traveled to Las Vegas for conventions in 2022, more than doubling the number of trade show attendees from the previous year as the city emerged from the economic slowdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research published Tuesday by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
It was the first full calendar year of conventions and meetings in the aftermath of closures starting in March 2020, when the Resort Corridor, along with most businesses in Nevada, were shuttered for nearly 90 days to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The boost in attendees helped fuel a 20.5% increase in visitors to Las Vegas in 2022, when 38.8 million visitors arrived in Southern Nevada, according to the report.
That’s an increase from 32 million visitors in 2021 and 19 million in pandemic-stricken 2020.
That 2022 total is slightly behind the record 42 million visitors — when 6.5 million attended conventions — from 2019, but a step in the right direction nonetheless, tourism officials said.
After all, a 126.2% increase in convention attendees is certainly a sign of progress.
Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, earlier this month said officials hoped to have more than 8 million conventiongoers visiting the city by 2026. That’s because the Las Vegas Convention Center expanded 3.5 million square feet of meeting space during the pandemic.
“If you take that into the equation, a complete recovery for what we had in 2019 is really a stop along the way,” he previously said. “By the time we get to 2026, our goal is to get to 8.3 million meeting attendees in Las Vegas.”
The report also found that hotel occupancy for 2022 was 79%— 89% on weekends and 75% midweek. The average daily room rate was $170.98 for 43.6 million total nights of rooms being occupied.
Sports tourism helped boost travel to Las Vegas in 2022, including 300,000 attendees for the NFL Draftin April and the Raiders season in the fall. Also, noted international soccer teams — Real Madrid CF, FC Barcelona, Juventus FC, Chelsea FC — played to capacity audiences at Allegiant Stadium.
“What a year,” said Lori Nelson-Kraft, the LVCVA’s senior vice president of communications. “Vegas hit on all cylinders offering incredible experiences and events that attracted strong visitation. Additionally, the meetings and convention calendar and the ability to welcome international visitors back helped to fuel an impressive increase to our visitation over last year.”
The return of international travel with no restrictions also aided the bump, helping Harry Reid International Airport in October establish a monthly record for visitors with 5.17 million passengers, a 24% increase from October 2021.
For the first 11 months of 2022, 48.3 million people traveled in or out of the airport — final passenger totals for 2022 haven’t been released.
Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of aviation for Harry Reid International, told the Sun in the fall that 2023 would be a “big growth year for our town.”
“From an aviation standpoint, there were a lot of aircrafts that were taken out of service once the pandemic hit, and a lot of those will be back in service,” she said.
Officials anticipate 2023 will shatter visitor records, especially with the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix Nov. 16-18 on the Strip. The Formula 1 race, where cars will zoom upwards of 212 mph on a 3.8-mile street course that includes part of the Strip, is projected to surpass revenue marks with an impact of $1.3 billion, officials said last week.
Visitors to the Resort Corridor this year also will be able to attend an event at the MSG Sphere, the 17,500-seat auditorium, $2.18 billion venue scheduled to open in the second half of 2023. MSG Sphere has 580,000 square feet of programmable lighting and the highest-resolution LED screen on earth, officials said.
