Las Vegas Tourism Industry Impact Hits Record $79.3 Billion in 2022

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recently released its 2022 Economic Impact Of Southern Nevada Tourism Industry report. In layman’s terms, this report covers tourist spending habits in Las Vegas last year.

Unlike the Visitor Profile, this report does not look at too much Nevada casino gambling spending. The only gaming data the report offers is that visitors allotted 21.4% of their overall budget to gambling. This information differs from the recent Visitor Profile, although both have some information that appears to overlap. This report offers a public look at overall visitor spending on hotel rooms, dining, shopping, sports, and more.

2022 is an important year to look at for Las Vegas’ financials as the tourism industry continued to recover from the financial impact related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tourism industry in Southern Nevada directly accounted for approximately 21.9% of regional employment. This was good for 20.2% of wages earned in the area.

Tourism started returning to Las Vegas in late-2021. That continued in 2022 as business travelers returned to Las Vegas for conventions and meetings.

Las Vegas tourist spending breaks records

According to the LVCVA report, Las Vegas visitor spending in 2022 was $44.9 billion. This was an all-time record that exceeded pre-pandemic outlays.

Total spending by visitors in 2022 was 24.4% higher than the previous year and 21.8% greater than in 2019.

The total economic output in Las Vegas has surpassed 2019 – before the COVID-19 pandemic forced Las Vegas casinos to close. According to the report, total visitor spending in 2022 reached a record $79.3 billion. This marks an increase of 24.7% from the previous record set during the final full pre-pandemic year.

This number is important, as it represents the equivalent to about half of Southern Nevada’s gross economic output.

Steve Hill, CEO and president of the LVCVA, said:

“These results are a powerful testament that what we do in concert with our resort partners to market this destination has an undeniable impact on our community. We’re proud of this city and this industry and know that the upcoming offerings in the destination will add to that success.”

As one would imagine, individual spending was also up from previous years. Last year, the amount each person spent in Las Vegas reached an all-time high of $1,156. This was good for a 3.3% increase from 2021 and a 10.1% bump from 2019.

Individual spending data is also encouraging

38.8 million people visited Southern Nevada in 2022. This was 3.7 million fewer visitors than in 2019. However, overall spending increased by 33.4% compared to 2019.

Kate Wik, chief marketing officer of the LVCVA, said:

“As we emerged from the pandemic, our consumer research made clear it was the perfect moment for us to capitalize on pent up travel demand. We’re thrilled to see not only the strong rebound in visitation, but also the significant impact our visitors have on our state’s economy.”

Visitor spending increased for all categories except sightseeing compared to 2019. This was a new trend in visitor spending last year compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In addition, fewer people went to see shows in 2022 compared to 2019. However, those who went to a show spent 10.1% more on the experience.

Overall, visitor spending budgets in 2022 break down like this:

• Gambling: 21.4%
• Shopping: 16.9%
• Hotel rooms: 14.7%
• Local transportation: 12%
• Food and Beverage: 11.7%
• Entertainment: 10.1%
• Sight Seeing: 1.2%

Spending on everything else accounted for 11.9% of overall budgets for visitors to the Southern Nevada region in 2022.