The net-net is I'd rather go somewhere else next time.
The common response is to point out that, current political environment aside, it's because Vegas has become far more expensive in recent years.
In other words, they've decided to start targeting more wealthy customers.
So it doesn't matter if visitor numbers have dropped (not to the people running Vegas anyway). It only matters if profits have dropped. And I haven't seen any reports on this so far. Maybe profits are growing or stable?
I just checked hotel prices and it does look damn cheap compared to anywhere in Europe. But I guess that's not what makes it expensive
I went for a niche conference a few weeks ago which was held at a lower-end 'budget' casino hotel off the strip and the actual room price per night was more than 2.5 times the relatively reasonable-seeming room rate I booked under due to resort fees, taxes and other bullshit.
Large corporate casino owners who can still benefit by making up the shortfall in visitors from high rollers who spend (and lose) bigger chunks of money gambling aren't the bulk of the overall Vegas tourist economy - which is mostly employees, suppliers and service providers whose income is driven more by "number of visitors" than "spend per visitor".
And it matters to the visitors who can't afford to go there anymore.
I guess the capitalist answer to this is for them to go start their own Vegas.
In the last 20 years, two long-term trends are making Vegas less attractive. The increasing proliferation of gambling alternatives from indigenous casinos, riverboats, poker parlors, online casinos, etc, as well as the broad decline of big "destination" trade shows and conferences people are willing to get on an airplane for. To me, Vegas has always been an odd mix of upsides and downsides. It can easily get congested and over-crowded and quickly become unfun. Now that they're pricing themselves out of the market, people are choosing better alternatives.
Gambling? We've been able to do that via our phones since the mid 2010s.
Collect an interesting variety on venereal diseases? Same, smartphone compatible for a decade or more.
Celebrity fronted restaurants? Mr Ramsey will ship his slop directly to my door in 48 hours or less.
If forced to travel to the USA a team of marketing grads haven't made it clear to me why i should go to Vegas.
So you'll get a lot more people contented, in a shallow sense, by their phones. Not wholy satisfied but enough to not go use or travel to the real thing for now.
I think it will be a widening divide as well thanks to wealth inequality.
I'm not sure if it's worth it to go for multiple visits unless you are really into gambling. Gambling on phones is not the same as doing it in person.
blinded•5mo ago