Paul Szydelko
It's still too soon to say whether Las Vegas has broken out of its 2025 visitation slump, but at least February and March provided a glimmer of positive news.
A 13-month streak in which visitation was down was broken in February with a 2.1% increase from the same month last year, and March showed a 1.9% increase from the same month last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Las Vegas hosted about 3.5 million visitors in March, the LVCVA said, noting a robust calendar of events. About 140,000 people from 128 countries attended the ConExpo-Con/AGG trade show, which rotates to the city every third year. The month also featured the Nascar Pennzoil 400 auto race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, several college basketball conference tournaments and the usual rush of sports bettors coming to town to watch March Madness at various sports books.
Hotel occupancy reached 84.8% in March, 1.9 percentage points ahead of March 2025. ADR reached $207 and RevPAR was $175, both ranking as the second-highest ever for the month.
For the first quarter as a whole, Las Vegas is only slightly ahead (0.4%) of visitation levels from last year. April's numbers won't be available until later this month.
Airport numbers
At Harry Reid Airport, the total number of arriving and departing passengers in March was 4.64 million, down by 4.2% compared with March 2025. The total number of passengers at the airport for 2026 was 5.14% behind last year's pace through the end of March.
Southwest, which carries about four times the number of passengers as the next biggest airline at Reid Airport, reported a 0.5% increase from the previous March and is up 2.8% compared with the first three months last year.
The May closure of Spirit Airlines, Reid Airport's second-largest carrier as recently as about a year ago, affected 16 direct markets served by airport, all of which are currently serviced by at least one other airline, Clark County Department of Aviation officials said. In the first three months of 2026, Spirit's passenger count at Reid Airport was down 72% from the same period last year.
All eyes on fuel costs
Las Vegas tourism officials are watching the surge of gasoline and jet fuel prices as a result of U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and ongoing conflict in the Strait of Hormuz.
Delta Air Lines, for example, suspended service from North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham Airport to Las Vegas from June 2 to Sept. 8 in part because of the soaring cost of jet fuel.
Jet fuel "has gone up 100%, or a little over 100% in the last month, and you're going to start to see, potentially, the effect of that in pricing for tickets and airlines," said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA in an April 23 presentation to the 2026 Las Vegas Housing Outlook that was reported in the Las Vegas Sun.
Gasoline costs could also begin to affect those who drive in from California, about 30% of the city's annual visitors, and Arizona, about 10%. As part of the America250 "The Great American Road Trip" initiative, the LVCVA even hosted gas giveaways in Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix on May 7 and 8, providing 100 drivers at each location with up to $100 in fuel.
"The fuel price issue is the concern that we have right now that would interrupt this momentum that we've developed," Hill told the housing group. "That's probably temporary ... but there could be some ups and downs and bumps along the way, in addition to consumer sentiment being at an all-time low right now, which is a reflection of folks being concerned about their financial situation."