New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas: More people are expected to visit Las Vegas than last year | tourism

It doesn’t seem to matter whether New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas falls on the weekend or midweek.

When the clock strikes midnight on Tuesday evening and the transition from 2024 to 2025 begins, there will be an eventful event.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Harry Reid International Airport expect more New Year’s Eve visitors this year than last year, even though New Year’s Eve falls on a Sunday in 2023 and a Tuesday this year.

“While New Year’s Eve falls on a Tuesday this year, midweek holidays tend to see slightly different travel patterns, with some travelers opting for longer trips before or immediately after the holiday,” airport spokesman Luke Nimmo said in an email.

In other words, some travelers will extend their Christmas trip by a few days to capture New Year’s Eve, while others will likely arrive on New Year’s Eve and stay until the following weekend, just in time for the CES crowd to make its way to Las Vegas.

Thousands are expected to descend on the Strip for the “America’s Party” fireworks display or welcome in the New Year at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.

The Transportation Security Administration in Reid predicted in early December that they would screen more than 1.1 million travelers during the official year-end holiday, which runs from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2.

The TSA expected the busiest travel days for the airport to be December 26-28 and January 1-2.

More New Year’s Eve visitors expected

The LVCVA, meanwhile, is forecasting around 343,000 New Year’s Eve visitors this year, compared to 342,000 a year ago.

“When the holiday falls on Friday through Monday, it is easier for many travelers to book a long weekend,” said Kevin Bagger, vice president of the LVCVA Research Center. “But we still tend to see pretty heavy occupancy on the night of New Year’s Eve, even if it falls in the middle of the week, like this year when it falls on a Tuesday evening.”

One of the biggest differences between this year and last is that there are fewer hotel rooms in Las Vegas, largely due to the closure of the Tropicana and Mirage resorts in 2024. With a slightly higher number of visitors this year and fewer hotel rooms to accommodate them, Bagger expects hotel occupancy to increase slightly.

The LVCVA forecast assumes occupancy of around 95 percent for New Year’s Eve, compared to 94.6 percent a year ago. There were 152,289 rooms in Southern Nevada’s inventory at the end of 2023, but only 150,859 this year.

Inflation and higher occupancy are also expected to influence the expected economic impact of the holidays this year. Bagger expects direct, indirect and induced economic impacts of $715.5 million this year, up 2.4 percent from $698.4 million last year.

Direct spending is money brought to the destination by visitors, while indirect and induced spending is money resulting from direct spending.

A room rate survey conducted on Dec. 24 found that the average nightly rate per room from Tuesday to Thursday was $254.86, slightly below the $261.76 average reported in a similar survey last year year was calculated.

The Review-Journal determined average room rates for a Tuesday through Thursday stay at 125 hotels based on prices posted on Hotels.com.

Several hotels – including Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Palazzo – were sold out and were not included in the survey.

The highest hotel prices examined included $845 per night at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, $724 per night at the Wynn and Encore Las Vegas, $649 per night at the Aria and $555 per night at The Venetian .

Hotel rooms for less than $150 were rare, but a traveler could get a room at Buffalo Bill’s in Primm, south of Las Vegas, for $74 a night.

Twelve hotels in downtown Las Vegas had an average rate of $211.33 per night, with Circa at $389 per night and Main Street Station at $133 per night.

As the crowds head home after New Year’s celebrations, thousands more will head to Las Vegas for CES, one of the city’s largest consumer electronics trade shows. The fair begins on January 7th, but pre-fair media demonstrations begin on January 5th.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at [email protected] or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X