Paul Szydelko
The average visitor to the Strip in 2021 was younger and spent more in the casino than in recent years, according to the Las Vegas Visitor Profile.
The average age of Las Vegas visitors was 43.2 years, a drop from a recent high of 46.2 years in 2019. Among those visitors who gambled in 2021, the average trip gambling budget was $717.51, up from recent figures, which ranged from $591 in 2019 to $619 in 2016.
The annual Las Vegas Visitor Profile, completed by GLS Research for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, returned after a one-year hiatus. The LVCVA said a 2020 Visitor Profile was not issued because of the pandemic.
Not only are visitors reporting a larger gaming budget, they are also spending more time gambling: three hours a day in 2021, compared with 2.2 in in 2018 and 2.7 hours in 2019.
"It looks like they're spending more as they game. But they're spending more time gambling, so on a per-hour basis, they're not as big of gamblers. They're still gambling, [but] it's just a different type of customer," said Toni Repetti, associate professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Fewer high-rollers
Fewer international visitors, due to the Covid travel restrictions, meant fewer big-stakes gamers made their way to the Strip in 2021, she says. About 97% of visitors were from the U.S., compared to pre-pandemic levels in the low-to-mid-80s.
Spending in nongaming categories was up across the board, according to the report. The average trip expenditure on food and drink (among those who spent on these categories) in 2021 was $465, up from 2016 to 2019, when spend ranged from about $320 to $415. The average local transportation expenditure also increased from about $131 in 2019 to $160 in 2021.
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Among spending visitors, the average trip shopping expenditure in 2021 was $342.29, up from $281 in 2019. With many productions paused because of the pandemic, fewer visitors spent money on shows (19% compared to more than 40% in past years). The average trip total spent on shows by those who did see them was $177.21, up from the 2016-2019 period.
"For a traveler (or someone) who's trying to sell Vegas, we're still a very cost-effective place to vacation, with a lot to do. We're not just a gambling town, as you can see from the results of what people do," Repetti said.
In addition to the low numbers of international visitors, a lack of big convention traffic had an impact on the numbers -- again due to the pandemic.
There was a slight increase in the average number of occupants per room (2.4 people, compared with 2.0 pre-pandemic) and a significant jump in those who said they were traveling with some under age 21 (from 5% in 2019 to 21% last year). Both, according to Repetti, are a direct result of fewer major conventions in town in 2021.
"Most convention people come in with one person, maybe two, to a room. When those aren't happening, I don't know that bigger groups are coming out, but proportionately they're more of the population because you don't have those conventioneers bringing down that room count."
Visitor satisfaction
About 96% of Las Vegas visitors said they were satisfied with their visit, with 70% saying they were "very satisfied" (down from 2016-2019 results) and 26% saying they were "somewhat satisfied" (up significantly from 2016-2019).
"Remember in all 2021, we still had a mask mandate in place. That very-satisfied level went down potentially because of that," Repetti said. "People coming in from other places that don't have mask mandates or think that Vegas historically doesn't have to follow rules like everyone else does it -- maybe that would have affected it."
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Since fewer people were coming to Las Vegas to work, their satisfaction level was likely affected. "Because of the number of visitors that come to Vegas for leisure or pleasure, they already come in with a mindset of they're on vacation. They're not here for work. … So I think there's an inherent positivity in those questions already just because of what they do here," Repetti said.
More diversity … and more Californians
Some other noteworthy facts from the survey:
• In addition to being younger, visitors to Las Vegas were more diverse. About 56% of 2021 visitors were white, down from 2016 to 2019 results, which ranged from 69% to 77%. In 2021, about 19% of visitors were Hispanic, 17% in 2021 were African-American and 6% were Asian.
• About 60% of visitors were from the Western U.S., with 26% from Southern California, up from 19% in 2018 and 18% in 2019.
• Perhaps attracted by the opening of Circa Resort & Casino, 53% reported visiting downtown, up from 42% in 2019.
• The mix of visitors who arrived by air and vehicle gradually returned to pre-pandemic levels toward the end of the year despite restrictions on international travel, with 48% arriving by air and 52% by vehicle.
In-person interviews for the Las Vegas Visitor Profile were conducted with 3,917 randomly selected adult visitors, with about 400 interviews conducted each month from March through November. Only visitors who planned to leave Las Vegas within 24 hours were asked to complete the survey.
Las Vegas had more than 32 million visitors in 2021, a significant increase from 2020 visitation of 19 million visitors but down from the 2019 pre-pandemic visitation of 42 million visitors.