Gambling, as always, remains a popular pastime, with 73 percent of visitors saying they gambled while in Las Vegas, down from 77 percent in 2011.
Of those who gambled, their betting budgets are larger, with gamblers wagering from an average $578.54 budget, up more than $130 from the average gambling budget of $447.63 four years earlier.
Gamblers mostly wagered on the Las Vegas Strip, where 88 percent of their action went, and 60 percent said they visited between five and 10 casinos, while wagering about 2.9 hours per day during their stay.
Some 42 million people visited Las Vegas last year, fewer of whom wagered during their say, but wagered more when they did.
That’s according to the latest polling results by San Francisco-based GLS Research, which the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) tasked with tracking Las Vegas visitors last year.
Among its many results, the polling data show adult tourists averaged age 47.7, up by almost three years from an average age of 44.8 in 2012, and 65 percent of those polled were over age 40.
About 47 percent of visitors polled said they came to Las Vegas for vacation or pleasure, down from 50 percent in 2011. The decrease in pleasure-seekers suggests business-oriented events might be growing in importance, as Las Vegas properties continue adding convention space.
As would be expected, the vast majority stayed at a hotel, with 92 percent indicating so, while the rest stayed with family, friends, or elsewhere. The average stay last year was 4.4 days and 3.4 nights.
The highway remains the most popular way to travel to Las Vegas, with 57 percent of visitors saying they drove or took a bus, with the remaining visitors arriving by air. Some 48 percent said they drove their own cars.
With ground transportation remaining the most common way tens of millions of visitors arrive each year, the Nevada Depart of Transportation is undertaking a major expansion of the I-15 corridor, from the Desert Inn Road north to the I-15 and US-95 interchange.
The interchange locally is known as the “spaghetti bowl,” for its many ribbons of asphalt converging near Downtown Las Vegas, and the improvement that gets underway this spring is intended to ease traffic flow and prevent the backups and resulting accidents that are so common.
That also should help more visitors to reach Downtown Las Vegas, which remains a popular draw. Some 32 percent of survey respondents said they took a trip to Downtown Las Vegas, and 59 percent said they did so specifically to take in the Fremont Street Experience.
Visitation among first-timers to Las Vegas remained a steady 16 percent, with 73 percent of them saying they were visiting Las Vegas for pleasure, rather than on a business trip or other reasons.
