Las Vegas tourism seems to be in deep trouble

I'm getting sick of the en :poop: ification of everything, and paying a $75 resort fee on top of a $65 room is offensive to me.

Vegas was fun when the rooms were cheap because they figured you'd gamble. Now they think they're Disney World.

Except for that eyeball thing, they don't have any new attractions. That failed Grand Prix race last year, where they tried to block "freeloaders" from watching a race from public spaces, also ground my gears.
 
Vegas was fun when the rooms were cheap because they figured you'd gamble. Now they think they're Disney World.
Cheap room at Circus Circus, then walk from casino to casino down the strip, first one side, then back the other. Starting early in the morning, we'd get back to the room around 2-3am. This was my ex-wife's Grandma's favorite thing to do, outpacing all of us at 80+-years-old. At each stop, she'd play nickel slots and drink White Russians. The last time were there, Luxor had just been built. Lost all desire to go back when Granny's health started fading. She lived to almost 100.
 
All this “high end” stuff doesn’t compute with the bulk of the general population.

Same as the $1M homes, $80k SUVs, etc.

There are some folks who can swing it, a big portion of them slaves to their items, and a lot more that can’t.

I’ll pay $$$ for a good buffet in Vegas, I do when I’m in the area. But not much else.

And then… think about the cost of electricity, water, etc. in the desert.
 
i was there last month and will be there in sep. the amount of folks going will not hurt the casinos as long as the gambling revenue stays the same. Who it will hurt is the ancillary folks like restaurants and others that rely on tourist .

I have been going Vegas for almost 35 years , usually once or twice a year. I have seen it change a lot over the years . Saw the resort fee and parking instituted . Vegas is still relatively cheap when compared to other place in states like NYC . For $250 a night one can stay in 5 star hotel . Try that in NYC or LA .

I can find 3 day packages at ok hotels in Vegas for around $350 on weekdays all the time . If you eat and drink on the strip expect to pay a lot . I don't even go on the strip most of the time when i am there . Off the strip the food and drink is so much less.

Strip places have been sending out a lot more free rooms etc to entice folks to go is what I have heard . More than usual in recent memory . They have no incentive to lower rates on anything until they revenue go down.

One of oddities i have found is Chinese food is expensive there compared to where i am from . Something simple like Beef Chow Fun is like $18 to $26 in Vegas . Go figure
 
I was in Vegas for 9 days at the beginning of July. Still lots of people on the Strip. It was during the big poker tournament so there a lot of poker players all over the place. We got 9 nights for $250 at Harrah's. It was fine. We also had a couple free nights at Aria. I did have some sticker shock at some restaurants. Very expensive. But got 4 free cocktails there due to our gambling status so that was $100 comp every day. Cocktail prices have gone up a lot. A drink that used to cost $14 about 5 years ago is now $25.

The casinos like F1 racing because it brings in a lot of wealthy Europeans with money to burn. Everyone else hates it. It wasn't Vegas that put up the screens on the overpasses and wanted a cut of the revenue from Strip adjacent properties. That was the F1 people.
 
Lots of people have maxed out their credit cards and the once ‘cheap’ Vegas vacation is now very expensive.

Same for Orlando theme parks here in central Florida.

Are tourists spending money or just walking around ???
Cheapest i ever went to vegas for 3 days was right after 9/11 and during the C . I got packages for less than $200 all in including resort fee .
 
I'd like to see a good show at the sphere but otherwise couldn't care less about Las Vegas. I haven't gambled in 25 years, and if I ever have the desire to lose all my money again, I can just go to Tunica.
 
Just gonna point out that it's not just Vegas, it's that international tourism travel to the US has utterly collapsed in 2025. The US is on track to lose almost $30 billion in tourist revenue this year because Canadians are not visiting, and people from other countries aren't coming either, and instead choosing to go elsewhere. Vegas is just one of the most immediately visibly affected. Since the end of 2024 to June 1st, international tourist spend in the US has dropped 9%. For comparison, from December 2023 to December 2024 it increased nearly 8%. We're on track to lose 20% by years end compared to December 2024. Any region of the US that depends on tourism is seeing a massive decline, and it's going to get worse.
 
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When road tripping last winter went through Reno wow that was a shock and not in a good way. Lots of Indian casinos around here these days the better ones are staying very busy. In the old days Las Vegas and Reno were the places to go for gambling out west, these days not so much. When I see all these people at the Indian casinos these days I would say Las Vegas days are very limited.
 
As someone who has multiple rental units there, I can tell you that the article does not touch at all on the severity of the issue.
Vegas is a barometer of the economy. Foreign tourists are dramatically down.
I mentioned this a few months ago here. The only thing I will say is: buckle up.
 
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