Paul Szydelko
Visitors to Las Vegas were more likely to be single and employed and were younger than in recent years, according to the annual Las Vegas Visitor Profile released last month.
About one in three visitors were single, higher than prepandemic levels. More were employed, partly because of a decrease in the number of visitors who were retired or homemakers, the LVCVA said. Sustaining a decadeslong trend, visitors were younger: The average age of visitors in 2022 was 40.7 years, down from 43.2 years in 2021 and 47.2 in 1992.
The Strip continues to be a big draw for those traveling for business. Among those who attended a convention or meeting during their 2022 visit, 63% said they were more interested in attending the event because it was in Las Vegas, up from 44% in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
Other insights gleaned from the 46-page Las Vegas Visitor Profile, compiled by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in collaboration with Heart+Mind Strategies:
• Business travelers are staying longer. About 58% extended their stay to enjoy leisure time. Those who stayed beyond their business responsibilities spent an average of 1.7 nights more in the city. In 2021, 44% of business visitors extended their stay and did so by an average of 1.2 nights.
• About 97% of visitors who participated in the survey felt their experience either met or exceeded their expectations, and 87% said they were either extremely or very likely to return to Las Vegas for a leisure trip in the future.
• More Las Vegas visitors booked their trip over a month before arrival in 2022 (54%) compared with 2021 (48%). A little more than one-third (35%) booked their trip between a week and a month in advance, down from 2021 (43%).
• The average gaming budget per visit was $761, well above prepandemic levels when gaming budgets averaged less than $600.
In a new model for collecting information for this Las Vegas Visitor Profile, to augment in-person interviews, those who recently left Las Vegas were invited to complete an online survey. Interviews were also completed on the Strip, at Harry Reid Airport and for the first time at the Fremont Street Experience and the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.
A total of 6,267 interviews were conducted.