Las Vegas tourists gambled a little bit more in 2015 than in the year before, but they also spent substantially more on rooms, food, drinks and shows, according to a recent report from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
The authority’s annual visitor profile, based on a year’s worth of interviews conducted by GLS Research, offers a detailed snapshot of why more than 42 million people visit Las Vegas each year and what they do when they’re here.
The 2015 profile does little to alter the narrative about where Las Vegas’ core industry is headed, but it does offer new details about the behavior of tourists during yet another record-breaking year for annual visitation.
The results came from in-person interviews with 3,600 visitors selected at random, according to GLS. The firm conducted its research every month from January through December, and only interviewed non-Clark County residents who were over age 21. Here are some highlights from the report.
Nearly all nongambling spending areas are significantly up
With the Strip now getting most of its revenue from nongambling sources, it’s not surprising that visitors reported spending more on their rooms, restaurants and entertainment. But there was a notable bump in 2015 even from one year earlier in some of those areas.
Specifically, average lodging expenditures per night rose to $102.64 in 2015 from $86.55 in 2014. The most recent figure is not only higher than the year before, however: It was by far the highest lodging expenditure over the last five years. Excluding packages and comps, visitors in 2011 spent an average of $84.04 on lodging, $93.13 in 2012 and $83.62 in 2013.
Food, drink and show expenditures also were the highest they’ve reached over the last five years. According to the visitor profile, average trip expenditures for food and drink were $292 in 2015, up from $281.88 in 2014 and $274.69 in 2011. For shows, meanwhile, visitors spent an average of $61.95 on their trip in 2015, up from $47.56 in 2014 and $47.52 in 2011.
Transportation was another nongaming area where average expenditures rose. In that category, visitors reported spending an average of $73.45 on local transportation during their trip, compared to $68.83 in 2014 and $64.25 in 2011.
Spending did not rise in every area. Average shopping expenditures were $122.66 last year, the lowest they’ve been in any of the most recently reported five years.
The proportion of visitors who gambled is up from 2014, but down over the last five years
Compared to 2014, a larger share of tourists said they gambled when they came to Las Vegas in 2015. But while the 73 percent who gambled was up from 71 percent in 2014, it was still down from 77 percent in 2011, according to GLS.
Those who did gamble, however, spent far more than they did in any of the preceding four years: The average trip gambling budget was $578.54 compared to $530.11 in 2014 and $447.63 in 2011.
Meanwhile, the time visitors spent gambling each day was consistent with the duration in previous years. Those who gambled did so for an average of 2.9 hours each day — the exact same figure as 2013 and 2011. In 2012 and 2014, the average was 2.6 hours.
Visitors were slightly older in 2015, but still younger than 2011
The average age among Las Vegas tourists last year was 47.7, the highest it’s been since 2011, when the average age was 49. Visitor age averaged 44.8 in 2012, 45.8 in 2013 and 45.2 in 2014.
At the same time, the proportion of visitors who were at least 40 years old rose to 65 percent in 2015 from 57 percent in 2014. Like the average age, the 2015 figure was the highest since 2011, when the share of visitors 40 years of age or older was 70 percent.
Big-name headliners were more popular among those who saw shows
From Britney Spears to Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and others, big-name entertainment was not hard to come by last year on the Strip. And while the proportion of visitors who attended shows on their trip fell to 61 percent from 65 percent, the share of those who saw a big-name headliner was way up, to 26 percent from 17 percent one year earlier.
The Internet continues to show its influence
Even though the share of tourists who used the Internet to plan their trip was down from 2014 and 2013, the importance of the web to today’s tourist experience remained abundantly clear in other ways.
Namely, 73 percent of visitors booked their accommodations online — the greatest proportion in any of the last five years reported by GLS. Similarly, 58 percent of visitors who used the Internet said it influenced where they decided to stay, which was also the highest share reported in any of the last five years.
Meanwhile, 48 percent of visitors said they used the Internet to book transportation to Las Vegas, which is greater than 2012, 2013 and 2014, but down still from 2011, when the proportion was 54 percent.