Las Vegas Visitor Volumes Reach New Pandemic-Era High

After dropping off a bit in August and September, Las Vegas visitor volumes picked back up again in October. The number of visitors to the Entertainment Capital of the World increased by 15.5% in October to nearly 3.4 million visitors, a new pandemic-era high. However, compared to the pre-pandemic level from October 2019, the number of visitors to Las Vegas was down 7.6%. Year-to-date through October 2021, 26.1 million visitors have traveled to Las Vegas, a 60.5% gain from the first 10 months of 2020, but still down by 26.5% from the same period in 2019. With the recent upturn in visitors, jobs in Las Vegas continue to bounce back. The Las Vegas market added 76,800 jobs in the year-ending October 2021, with 29,900 of those positions returning to the Leisure/Hospitality Services industry. In addition, the market’s 8.5% job growth rate over the past year was the leading performance among the nation’s 50 largest apartment markets. However, the Las Vegas job base still has a way to go before a full recovery. As of October, the overall job base was 6.4% below pre-pandemic levels. This was one of the worst outcomes among the top 50 markets, topping only the performances in Los Angeles, Oakland and New York. Las Vegas jobs in Leisure/Hospitality Services, the hardest hit employment sector in this market during the pandemic, are still about 22% below pre-pandemic norms.