Ahead of Friday’s release of gaming revenue and tourism numbers, the Las Vegas airport reported passenger counts fell 5.7% in July, signaling a continued slowdown in visitation that has garnered international headlines.
Harry Reid International handled 4.77 million passengers in July, down 5.7% from 5.06 million in July 2024. For the year, passenger counts are down 4.4% or about 1.5 million.
Domestic passenger counts fell 5.9% in July, while international passenger counts fell 3.8%. For the year, domestic passenger counts are down 4.6% while international counts are down 1.8%.
Travel from Canada continues to take a hit as many of the country’s citizens have opted not to travel to the U.S. In July, Westjet was down 33.6% year-over-year. Air Canada was down 24.5%.
In contrast, travel from some other nations was up amid a cheaper dollar. Korean Airlines saw a 35.4% increase, KLM rose 36%, and Virgin Atlantic rose 5.3%. Edelweiss and Eurowings also saw increases of 16.5% and 23%. Some Mexican airlines also reported gains; Vivaaerobus was up 45%.
For Labor Day weekend, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority projects a 1.8% decline in visitation, as the city continues to experience a downturn in tourism.
The LVCVA projects 320,000 visitors over the four-day weekend, down from 326,000 a year ago. However, visitors are projected to spend even more this year at $423 million, a 2.9% increase over the $410.9 million last year.
Hotel occupancy is predicted to be 88.5% this weekend, down 1.9 points from 90.4% a year ago. There are 149,410 hotel rooms available in the marketplace, down 0.8% from 150,679 a year ago.
The total economic impact of $673.6 million will be 1% lower than $680.1 million a year ago.