Las Vegas tourism and convention business rebounds in 2021, poised for strong 2022

January 28, 2022 12:18 AM
  • Buck Wargo, CDC Gaming Reports
January 28, 2022 12:18 AM
  • Buck Wargo, CDC Gaming Reports

The tourism and convention business in Las Vegas roared back in 2021 amid pent-up demand enabled by the availability of COVID vaccines. Optimism abounds for an ongoing recovery in 2022 as omicron-variant cases continue to decline.

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The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Thursday that 32 million visitors came to the city in 2021, an increase of 69% over the 19 million in 2020. It’s still a work in progress, however, as visitation is down 24% from the 42.5 million in 2019. That was evident in December, when three million visitors came to the city, down 3.5% from November and 13.3% below December 2019.

“We attribute the drop in visitation largely to the uptick in omicron cases, which had an impact on flight cancellations into Las Vegas,” said J.P Morgan analyst Joseph Greff. “We note that this is the first month LVCVA has started reporting convention attendance since March 2020, with 126,700 attendees in December (down 64% versus 2019). November convention attendance was 400,900 (down 34% versus 2019).”

Passengers going through Harry Reid International Airport totaled 39.7 million in 2021, down 23% from 51.5 million in 2019 prior to the pandemic. Visitation was bolstered, however, by travel from neighboring states increasing over 2019 and 2020 levels. Along 1-15 at the Nevada-California border, the average daily count was 48,047, up 28% from 2020 and 7.5% from 2019.

Overall, there were 10 million fewer visitors in 2021 than 2019. It will take the full return of conventions and international travel to supplement the strong U.S. tourist element that has already manifested, aided in part by the return of in-person sporting events, concerts, and other entertainment.

That should continue. The LVCVA has approved approximately $27 million in investments to bring special events to Las Vegas through June. The city is poised to host the NFL Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in February and the NFL Draft at iconic areas throughout Las Vegas in April.

In 2021, Las Vegas saw the debut of new venues, including Resorts World and Virgin Hotels, as well as the West Hall, the Las Vegas Convention Center’s $1 billion expansion.

For the first time since the pandemic, the LVCVA released its convention numbers that showed 2.2 million people attended in-person trade shows in 2021 to reignite the meeting and convention industry. Large conventions, shut down in 2020 until casinos reopened after a two-month-plus closure, returned last summer.

Las Vegas had 6.6 million convention visitors in 2019, meaning 2021 was 67% below where it was two years ago.

Since June, the Las Vegas Convention Center has hosted 52 trade shows and events that have attracted more than 700,000 attendees. This included the return of trade shows such as World of Concrete in June, which represented the first major tradeshow to reconvene in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, and SEMA, an automotive-industry trade show, which more than 100,000 attended in November.

The National Indian Gaming Association met in July and the Global Gaming Expo returned to the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in October.

There’s plenty of room to grow. The omicron variant appeared to have an impact in January on the Consumer Electronics Show, which relies on a strong international contingent; only 40,000 attended, down from 170,000 in January 2020.

Las Vegas is positioned to build off that convention business and add to tourism numbers based on evidence that the omicron surge has peaked and cases, in Las Vegas and other parts of the country, especially urban areas, are expected to drop quickly.

Las Vegas is also poised to capitalize on a return of international travel in 2022 that began in November when the Biden Administration lifted travel restrictions and allowed vaccinated travelers to enter the country.

Some 123,647 international visitors passed through Harry Reid International Airport in December, a positive recovery, but still well below the 298,922 in December 2019. There were 757,642 international visitors in 2021, mostly from Mexico and Canada. That’s 80% below the 3.8 million international visitors in 2019.

With nearly 150,000 hotel rooms throughout the destination, overall hotel occupancy approached 67% during 2021. Weekend visitation also experienced strong recovery, averaging 81 percent for the year. Midweek occupancy reached 60 percent as the tradeshow industry continued to recover, according to the LVCVA.

Overall hotel occupancy of 67% for the year was far ahead of 2020’s 42.1% tally, but below the 88.9% level of 2019.

In part due to the challenged convention-group segment, the LVCVA reported that midweek, annual occupancy reached 60.5%, 23.1 points higher compared to 2020, but 25.8 points lower than 2019. Compared to midweek activity, weekends saw a stronger recovery, exceeding 87% in seven out of 12 months and ending the year at 81.3% (+28.5 points versus 2020 and -13.6 points versus 2019), according to the LVCVA.

Year-end average daily room rates exceeded $137, surpassing 2019 levels by 3.6%, while revenue per available room approached $92 for the year. That’s up 81.2% versus 2020, but down 22.2% versus 2019’s pre-COVID tally of $117.90, according to the LVCVA.

The average daily room rate on the Strip was $145.45, some 11% higher than 2020 and 1.6% higher than 2019. Downtown room rates of $94.86 for the year were 37% higher than 2020 and 32% higher than 2019 when it was $71.80.

Laughlin had 1.21 million visitors in 2021, 17.8% higher than the 1.02 million in 2020, but 33.7% below the 1.82 million in 2019.