Sarah Feldberg
It was supposed to be a record-shattering year for Las Vegas, the fourth in a row to hit a new high mark and perhaps the first ever to crest 43 million visitors to the desert city. But when the year-end stats were tallied, visitor volume in 2017 was 42.2 million people, well off 2016's high of 42.9 million.
The shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on Oct. 1, which killed 58 people and injured hundreds more, likely impacted those numbers, with visitation dropping throughout the final quarter of the year. But it's not to blame entirely for the city's 2017 slump. Even the first three quarters of 2017 were down 1% year over year.
And the first three months of 2018 show that Las Vegas hasn't fully regained its footing — at least not yet.
During the first quarter, 10,274,100 visitors arrived in Las Vegas, a three-year low for the quarter behind 2017's 10,443,200 visitors and 2016's 10,530,200 guests.
In the Los Angeles Times, Las Vegas Advisor publisher Anthony Curtis laid the blame at the foot of resort fees and parking charges, which can bump a Vegas vacation out of the budget of some visitors or make the prospect of staying on the Strip seem too expensive before they even set foot in a casino.
The Venetian and the Palazzo now tack on a $45 resort fee per night that includes WiFi, local calls and access for two to the fitness center at the Canyon Ranch Spa. The Las Vegas Sands resorts are among the few remaining that include valet and self-parking in its rates.
Across the street at Caesars Palace, the $39 resort fee also includes two passes to the fitness center and WiFi, but not parking, which is an additional $15 for self-parking and $23 for valet per day.
At the Bellagio, where the resort fee is $39, a day of self-parking runs $18 and goes up to $30 for valet.
However, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) told the Times that it has no data relating lower visitation to higher fees. Rather, LVCVA research center executive director Kevin Bagger attributes the slouching visitor statistics to a reduction in room inventory due to renovations along with the cycling out of the triennial Conexpo-CON/AGG tradeshow.
"We believe the impact of 1 October was largely limited to the fourth quarter of 2017," Bagger said via email.
Visitation in March 2018 was off less than 1% year over year, largely due to the absence of that tradeshow and its 129,000 construction industry attendees, who will return to Las Vegas in March 2020.
Bagger is optimistic about visitation increasing as 2018 continues. "Various renovation projects will be completed in 2018 that will bring rooms back into the inventory, notably among them, Park MGM (the former Monte Carlo resort)," he said. "Of course, we are monitoring market data constantly, but we continue to expect annual visitation to match or slightly exceed last year."