All NewsOctober 2, 2026

The Las Vegas Strip has a visitor problem

Despite dropping prices to the lowest they have been in 2026, Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip saw a decline in hotel occupancy.

As an avid gambler who used to visit Las Vegas six to eight times a year, nearly always staying on the Strip, it’s not surprising to me. Sin City has suffered from a number of factors that have kept me away.

The loss of Spirit Airlines has taken away a cheap airfare option, and while I can generally get a comped room, food prices and value for my money have slipped. Add in Starbucks lattes costing more than $11, about twice what I pay at home, and Las Vegas has felt more like a money trap than a destination since its recovery after the Covid pandemic.

“Las Vegas visitors fell to 3.03 million in August, a 4.3% decline from August 2025, and 136,700 fewer than visitors in July. A Tuesday (Sept. 29) report from Harry Reid International Airport showed airport passenger counts dropped by 9% compared to August 2025,” CDC Gaming reported.

It’s not just that people weren’t visiting.

“The average daily rate for a Las Vegas hotel room fell to $150.32 in August, about $7 less than room rates in July. But hotel occupancy rates struggled along at 74.1%, down 3.4% compared to August 2025. Weekend occupancy came in higher at 85.5%, but midweek occupancy was down to 69.4%,” according to the report.

Las Vegas and the Vegas Strip hurt by Canadian trade war

“The number of Canadians traveling to the United States plunged after President Donald Trump returned to office with remarks about making Canada the 51st state. An acrimonious trade war between the two countries now is threatening to reinforce the informal boycott just as it appeared to be easing slightly,” reported the Associated Press.

Las Vegas tourism officials went to Canada in August to meet with travel advisers, tour operators, and airline representatives.

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“We’re here to make sure you know that we care about Canada,” Steve Hill, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said while in Vancouver.

It’s not just politics keeping Canadians from Las Vegas.

“There’s a myriad of factors why Canadian tourism is down: exchange rate, flight ability, costs of the flights, politics all play into it,” Derek Stevens, the owner and CEO of Circa Resort & Casino, the D Las Vegas, and Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, told CityNews.

Las Vegas visitor numbers have dropped.

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Las Vegas is losing lower-income customers

The share of Las Vegas visitors from households earning more than $100,000 (inflation-adjusted to 2015) has grown about 25% since 2022, according to the LVCVA Las Vegas Visitor Profile. That’s a shift driven by a decline in middle- and lower-income travelers.

“Hill said the drop-off is particularly concentrated among younger, early-career visitors and retirees on fixed incomes,” according to Vegas Inc.

Visitors ages 21-29 have decreased more than 10% since 2022, according to the LVCVA Las Vegas Visitor Profile.

Meghann Foye, Travel & Lifestyle Editor, Parade.com, thinks that some steps Las Vegas has taken to grow younger visitors will work over time.

“Las Vegas’ shift toward family-friendly activities, experiential pop-ups like the Malibu Barbie Cafe, and immersive attractions like AREA15 and Universal Horror Unleashed is a smart strategy for attracting and retaining younger audiences,” she told TheStreet.

Las Vegas may have a value problem

RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino thinks that added competition has hurt Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip.

“Vegas used to own a certain kind of weekend. Now you can get a lot of that same energy in Nashville and other cities, and in some cases have a better overall experience. When people jokingly call Nashville ‘NashVegas,’ that tells you something. Vegas isn’t the only place competing for that trip anymore,” he told TheStreet.

MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle was open about the affordability issue during his company’s second-quarter earnings call.

His company added an all-inclusive price at Luxor and Excalibur, two of MGM’s lower-end resorts, specifically to address the affordability issue.

“I think I commented earlier, the narrative around Los Vegas not providing value and everyone getting beat up on that. We think, we do not think, we know it has helped. We have… followed it closely through social media and otherwise. And it is a great value at the end of the day,” Hornbuckle said.

Caesar’s Entertainment COO Anthony Carano was asked about Las Vegas’ value proposition by Lizzie Dove from Goldman Sachs during his company’s first-quarter earnings call.

“There was a lot of talk last year about bringing value back to Vegas, and we’ve seen one of your peers bring out these all-inclusive packages and whatnot to kind of stimulate that leisure consumer,” she noted.

Carano was blunt in his response.

“Yes. The team is doing a great job here in Vegas looking at all of our properties and welcoming guests at every price point. We’ve got the all you can eat drink at a number of our properties on the east side. We’ve taken a look at price up and down all of our properties. And I think we’re in a pretty good spot to attract every guest to Las Vegas,” he added.

And the numbers suggest that Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip have some good news to celebrate, albeit with fewer tourists joining the party.

Lower visitor counts, however, do not tell the whole story.

“Even with fewer people coming through, gaming revenue has been a bright spot, growing to 135% of 2019 levels and up 2.3% from 2025,” according to the LVCVA. “Gaming brought in $8.13 billion year to date as of July 2026 despite the drop in visitor volume,” added Vegas Inc.

Related: Another amusement park to close forever after last season, getting auctioned off