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I’ll start by saying that I have always loved Las Vegas. Work and leisure travel has taken me to Sin City around 140 times and I have stayed at just about every hotel on the Strip. The pricing is Las Vegas continues to be out of control. It started with destination fees, parking fees, and the prices of meals and attractions creeping up. Now, it’s gotten to the point that you might have to pay $50 just to use the mini-fridge. Las Vegas was a place that catered to travelers of all budgets, but it seems like those days are gone and tourism is declining as a result. Can Vegas turn it around? Something has to give.
The photo above is one flight, but July was the sixth month in a row where tourism showed year-over-year declines. Las Vegas saw a 12% decline in visitors compared to July 2024 (around 3.1 million people visited) according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). Convention attendance fell about 10% in June, but then rose around 10% in July. Hotels are running promotions to try to attract gamblers and those who see Las Vegas as a place for shows, shopping, and dining.
Some examples include Resorts World (review here) waiving resort fees and paid parking through September 10th and the Sahara Las Vegas Hotel offering free parking, late check-out, and upgrades on some stays. Las Vegas hosted 41.6 million visitors in 2024, but will see a much lower number in 2025 if the slide continues.
Las Vegas did this to itself. Every traveler who has gone over the past few years can share stories of being ripped off. One of my favorite hotels, the Bellagio Hotel & Casino (review here), is charging guests $25 if they want their room service orders served on actual dishes. That’s ridiculous. Casino odds have also been shifting through the years. BlackJack now often pays 6:5 versus the more favorable 3:2 (if you’re wondering, this means that a $100 hand that is a BlackJack (an Ace plus any card valued at 10) pays $120 instead of $150).
Bloomberg argues that it’s time to think about Las Vegas differently. It says: “If the city wants to be perceived as a higher-end product, then it needs to consider dropping the budget airline model.” The add-on fees and appearance that everything is more expensive are what is hurting tourism. I’ve seen it first hand and had to grin and bear it as it’s part of the Las Vegas experience. This is not sitting well with tourists and it’s time that Las Vegas went back to what it used to be as a place that appealed to all travel budgets and attracted a wide swath of tourists. Until price points drop (or the social media posts change), we might see Las Vegas lose a lot more of its magic.
Anthony’s Take: I am a huge fan of Las Vegas, but I have been choosing to go elsewhere recently. It feels more expensive and seems impossible to even grab a slice of pizza without spending $25. Hopefully, the message of tourists taking their money elsewhere will make Sin City return to being a place where anyone can feel like a high roller. Vegas has reinvented itself before and bounced back. It’s time to do it again.
(Image Credit: Resorts World.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
I agree. After annual trips to Vegas since the mid-80s, I’m making my last trip next week, just for three free nights with a Hilton Grand Vacation Club promo, after which is a road trip into Utah for the umpteenth time since it was Arizona last year. Vegas used to have room for everyone from high rollers to low rollers but many casinos have been replaced with high end ones. I remember 25 cent craps at Casino Royale with 100x odds (not to exceed $25 I think it was), $10 dinner buffets at MGM and others, free finger sandwiches at Slots-A-Fun, painter caps from Circus Circus and nickle draft beer at Flamingo. Wide variety of rooms for all budgets. That has pretty much disappeared, although I regularly booked Horseshoe for $10-$15 plus resort fee on Sunday through Thursday through Caesar’s Rewards. Dining deals on the Strip are disappearing, and quality of the ones that remain (such as Ellis Island sirloin steak) has declined. My preferred “deal” is the $35 Gen Korean BBQ and sushi buffet in Miracle Mile (and I already have the reservation). But there are many “local” off Strip places which are very reasonable. I am not as optimistic as you that Vegas will “reinvent” itself. Wife and I can spend 60 days in winter in Vietnam for $90 a day for both, which covers RT air, hotels and meals. A riverfront hotel in Da Nang in the tourist district is $25 ($30-$35 if you want the beach. Strong Vietnamese coffee is 50 cents, maybe $1.50 if you want a specialty such as salt or egg coffee. Huge bowl of beef pho is $3 and you can add summer rolls for a quarter each. NO tipping in Vietnam! No place on a credit card bill to add a tip, although some (but not most) in the tourist area have a 10% service chartge. No tip jars. And much better service than I ever received in all the years visting Vegas. I’m not a gambler beyond one or two poker tournies, so I went to “hang out” but Vietnam is much cheaper for that. A seat at an outdoor cafe is the price of a cup of coffee and no one makes you feel like you need to move on for the next customer. In Vegas, I often go to bed about 10 PM. In Vietnam….midnight to 1 AM.