The head of the Las Vegas tourism agency is confident visitation will rebound in 2026 and that the World Cup will help counter the summer slowdown that dampened 2025’s numbers.
Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, addressed the more than seven percent dropoff in visitation through November, but called it a positive sign that numbers were off only 5% in October and November. Visitation is on a pace to end the year down about three million. Las Vegas and resorts have offered deals to lure in visitors in the fall to counter the narrative that the city is overpriced.
“We hope so, and there are reasons to believe that,” Hill said of expecting higher visitor numbers in 2026. “The comparisons will be easier than comparing 2025 to 2024. Consumer sentiment and international policy decisions affect that too. As long as things stay stable or improve on those fronts, visitation in Vegas can recover.”
The steepest declines were over the summer and Hill recalled the pent-up demand after COVID, which didn’t have much of a dip.
“That was an aberration,” Hill said. “If you look at our past years, the summer months have been our slowest for the meeting and tradeshow industry. It’s a much more leisure-visitor-dependent time of year. That didn’t show up in 2023 and 2024 when we were setting records every month. We saw it come back again in 2025. We’ll focus attention again on summer in a number of different ways, because that’s probably a reversion to what’s normal. The drop in visitation as we got into the fall and winter was less than the summer months, and we’re encouraged by that and are going to try to make that continue.”
Drawing more international visitors when the U.S. hosts the World Cup in June and July will help, though Las Vegas won’t host any games.
“We’re the place to be if you don’t have a ticket,” Hill said. “If you want to come and feel the atmosphere of the World Cup, but haven’t been able to secure a ticket at a stadium, Las Vegas is the place to be. We’ll be leaning into that message. We think it has an opportunity to help this summer.”
Some of what happens with tourism numbers in 2025, however, will be out Las Vegas’s control, despite all of its marketing, Hill said. For one, they’ve seen a drop of about one million international visitors since 2019, largely due to government policy on visas and fees, turning people away and making it harder to get here.
“Also, consumer sentiment is at a very low level because people are concerned about their ability to afford to travel,” Hill said. “That diminishes visitation everywhere, including Las Vegas, but look at what where we’d be without Allegiant Stadium, Sphere, and the expansion and renovation of the Convention Center. The wisdom of those investments shines at a time like this.”
Hill spoke of the importance of the convention and meeting business, vital to fill rooms midweek. Casino executives are touting 2026 as likely to be a record year based on group bookings and Hill said the show schedule across the city, including outside of the Convention Center, is one of the best in history.
“Our building is packed. Mandalay Bay and the Venetian Expo have very little room to offer in this coming calendar year. That portends really well for our city. The meeting industry is such an important part of attracting visitors to Las Vegas. In a typical year, we get about six million visitors for meetings or trade shows. They tend to stay longer than leisure visitors. They tend to occupy a room by themselves more than a leisure visitor, so the number of room nights from meeting visitors tends to be higher. That matters.”
Hill addressed the opening of the $600 million renovation of the Central Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center that welcomed CES to open its global tradeshow Tuesday. CES brings in more than 140,000 people a year ago, including 40% from abroad. The Central Hall renovation is part of a wide range of improvements to the center, including the opening of a $1 billion West Hall in 2021.
“We’re able to attract more attendees to these meetings, because we have a bigger and beautiful facility, and that’s really going to help Las Vegas as we move forward. It’s exhilarating after eight years of construction and 20 years of work to get to this point. To walk in and see such a fantastic building all lit up by CES is a culmination of a huge amount of work by so many people and to have it turn out so well we’re thrilled. We have more work to do in the South Hall and we’ll do that over the next few years, but it will be less intrusive than what we had to do in the North and Central halls. It’s great to have what feels like a brand-new building.”
