Air travel to Las Vegas from New York and Pennsylvania made some of the biggest gains among top U.S. feeder-state markets in 2024. At the same time, Toronto and Vancouver saw double-digit increases as international visitation recorded a strong year.
Travel from California, the perennial No. 1 feeder market, held steady with a 0.9% increase in 2024 over 2023, despite visits from the Los Angeles area declining 0.9% to 1.8 million, down from 1.82 million. Northern California made up the difference.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority issued its annual air feeder market report that showed domestic visitor travel to Las Vegas increased by 0.2% in 2024 and continued to surpass air passenger counts from 2019 prior to the pandemic. The 20.1 million was 8.5% higher than the 18.5 million in 2019.
The number of international travelers at 1.86 million rose 15.5% but remained 2.8% below 2019. Canada had 51.6% of the international passengers, a 7.8% increase over 2023, and 48.1% market share at 897,348. It had 835,453 in 2019. Mexico had a 16.1% year-over-year increase to 393,743. Its passenger count was up 5% since 2019.
Both markets are being watched closely in 2025, with some indications that there may be declines in passenger counts for the year. Many Canadians, angered by recent U.S. policy toward Canada, have declared they won’t travel to the U.S.
New York, which was No. 7, had the biggest increases among top 10 feeder markets with a 8.3% gain in 2024 over 2023. Pennsylvania, ranked No. 15, saw a 6.2% increase.
California’s 4.48 million air travelers to Las Vegas comprised 22.2% of arriving passengers. That was followed by 2.21 million from Texas, 11% of the share, and 1.1 million from Florida, a 1.2% increase. Washington state was fourth with a 2.2% decline and Illinois was fifth with a 1.5% increase.
Casino consultant Josh Swissman said part of the reason for the gains on the East Coast may be the pickup in the Las Vegas convention business and the recovery of tourism from the pandemic.
“The recovery of the group and convention business is a bit of a slower tide to turn,” Swissman said. “The fact that you see continued improvement in performance three years on makes sense to me. There are long development and booking cycles (from the East Coast), so it only makes sense you see a longer tail in terms of improved performance. For every type of traveler, those based further away from Vegas, it takes more time to plan and it’s more expensive. That makes it obvious you would see a longer lead time to improvement.”
The rest of the top 10 states started with Colorado and was followed by New York, Arizona, Oregon, and Georgia.
Michigan was No. 11, followed by Hawaii, Minnesota, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. New Jersey was followed by North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, and Utah at No. 20.
Compared to 2019 prior to the pandemic, California rose 11.2%, Texas 16.4%, and Florida 19%. Washington fell 3.4%, while Illinois declined 1%.
Some of the biggest gainers over the past five years include Oregon, up 20.5%; Hawaii, up 32%; North Carolina, up 24.5%; Tennessee, up 27.5%; and Utah, up 29.9%.
Among cities, New York City, which ranked No. 3 among feeder markets, saw air travel to Las Vegas increase 4.8% to 903,406, while No. 2 San Francisco Bay Area had a 3.3% increase to 1.41 million. Chicago at No. 4 had a 1.5% increase to 809,767 while Dallas at No. 5 also had a 1.5% increase.
They were followed by Seattle falling 1.7% and Colorado dropping 1.8%. Houston was next, falling 1.6%, while No. 9 San Diego was flat. Washington, D.C., rounded out the top 10 with 1.1% drop.
Following Sacramento at 11 and up 3.9%, Phoenix was No. 12 with a 0.6% drop and Atlanta with a 9.1% decline. Miami with a 4% increase was followed by Minneapolis with a 5.5% drop. Portland was down 1.4%, Detroit 1.6%, Austin 3.5%, and Salt Lake City 3.5%. Reno posted a 5.5% increase.
Honolulu, down 2.8%, was followed by Boston up 4.2%, Orlando down 2.2%, San Antonio down 1.4%, and Philadelphia rounding out the top 25 up 4.5%.
When it comes to direct flights internationally, Toronto had 281,682, a 14.3% increase and a 15.1% market share.
Vancouver was No. 2 with 213,257, a 10.1% increase. Mexico City was third with 192,634, a 0.1% decline.
They were followed by London Heathrow, flat year-over-year. Calgary was down 5.8%, Guadalajara up 22.5%, Edmonton down 7.3%, Montreal up 19.9%, Seoul up 33%, and Monterrey rounding out the top 10 up 41%.
Those markets were followed by Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London-Gatwick, Panama City, Winnipeg, Zurich, and Manchester.
