LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Tourism in the Las Vegas area continued an upward trend over the last year according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
VISITORS
In its annual look at tourism impacts, the LVCVA showed through the end of 2021 the number of visitors peaked at 3.4 million in October with an average for the second half of 2021 at 3.1 million visitors each month.
In 2019 42.5 million people visited Southern Nevada. This fell by more than half during the main pandemic shutdown in 2020 to 19 million. And in 2021 the number of visitors showed a healthy increase to 32.2 million.
SPENDING
Visitor spending also showed a good amount of recovery increasing by 29.2% according to the LVCVA. The study showed pre-pandemic spending of $36.9 billion in 2019, $17.6 billion in 2019, and a rebound to $36.1 billion in 2021.
CONVENTIONS & JOBS
The study showed that while convention attendance was dramatically up year-over-year it’s still on 1/3 of what it was in 2019. The study showed convention attendance increased by 2.2 million in 2021.
In 2021, the convention industry directly accounted for roughly 20% of employment, 17% of wages earned, and 30% of total output in the regional economy.