The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recently released the latest edition of its “Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study,” which was packed with data on consumer trends from 2022.
The main theme of the study, which consisted of 6,200 total online and in-person interviews, was that the city attracted a younger and more diverse audience than it did in 2021, and consumer spend was higher than ever.
The average visitor age was 40.7 years, a sharp decrease from 2021’s average of 43.2 years. Similarly, Millennials constituted nearly half (48 percent) of all visitors, whereas Baby Boomers accounted for just 12 percent, which was the lowest of all generations—even Gen Z accounted for 13 percent.
In terms of demographics, just over 60 percent of visitors were white; Hispanic visitors accounted for 16 percent, and black and Asian visitation came in 12 and 7 percent, respectively.
International visitation continues to lag behind pre-pandemic levels, accounting for just nine percent of total traffic.
With regards to consumer spend, the overall gambling budget among those who gambled during their stay (75 percent) was a whopping $761.22, well above pre-pandemic rates. The average time spent gambling was 2.6 hours, which was actually less than the previous year (3 hours).
Per-trip spending on food and drink reached an all-time high last year, coming in at $527.13. Show and entertainment spend also increased significantly, jumping $309.76, well above 2021’s mark of $177.21.
Interestingly, perhaps the best news for operators was that visitor satisfaction increased significantly—77 percent of visitors indicated that they were “very satisfied” with their stay, which was a seven percent increase from last year, compared to just three percent who indicated that they were “dissatisfied.”
Despite the increase in visitor spend, however, the number of casinos visited (4.3) and gambled at (2.2) were both down from last year’s totals of 5.7 and 3.2.
Just under a quarter of respondents said they were visiting the first time, and nine percent traveled for work events, a big jump from the four percent posted in 2021. This is good news for operators and officials, as meetings and conferences were considered to be one of the last remaining sectors to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.
