According to data released by the Research Center at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Las Vegas welcomed nearly 3.5m visitors in July, the highest monthly visitation since the start of the pandemic more than two years ago.
The boost in visitors drove Nevada’s gaming passed the US$1bn mark for the 17th consecutive month in July, making it the fourth highest monthly total in history. GGR came in at US$1.31bn, including the second best total ever generated by the Las Vegas Strip.
The Strip’s total in July came in at US$773.3m, marking a 2.42 per cent decline from the record ever month a year earlier, but 42.7 per cent more than July 2019.
Michael Lawton, the Nevada Gaming Board’s senior economic analyst, said July 2022 faced a ‘very difficult comparison’ against the all-time record month in July 2021.
“July 2021 set a very high bar in terms of gaming win and although this month’s results decreased year over year, July 2022’s gaming win represented the fourth highest total all-time, while the Strip’s gaming win was the second highest total ever recorded, second only to July of last year,” he said.
“When looking at overall gaming activity, this month’s wagering totals for slots and games was US$15.1bn, which was the fourth highest total ever recorded. Demand for gaming still remains strong, customers continue to display resiliency, and leisure travel continues to benefit from a very jam-packed event calendar,” Lawton added.
With world-class entertainment and sports, strong airline recovery and 151,000 hotel rooms throughout the destination, overall hotel occupancy in Las Vegas surpassed 83 per cent in July, four percentage points ahead of July 2021.
Las Vegas hosted approximately 307,000 convention attendees, roughly double that of last year, with tradeshows including Las Vegas Market at the World Market Center, Cosmoprof at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the American Culinary Federation at Caesars Forum.
With 14 million square feet of meeting and event space in the destination, the meeting and convention sector historically represents US$11bn in economic impact to the region and several significant tradeshows slated for the coming months demonstrate its continued recovery.
For the month, Nevada slots generated US$839.6m, marking a fall of 3.9 from the record month with table down 1.9 per cent to US$476.4m. Baccarat generated US$138m down 13.4 per cent while sportsbooks generated US$16.2m, marking a fall of 51.3 per cent.
Source: GMB
