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Skift
a day ago
- Business
- Skift
Las Vegas Sees Midmarket Tourism Soften, Weighing on MGM Resorts
Las Vegas tourism is experiencing measurable softness in 2024, and it's affecting MGM Resorts. MGM Resorts' reported a drop in Las Vegas Strip revenue in the second quarter, pointing to broader signs of visitor softness in the city — especially at value-oriented properties. The company's dozen properties on the Strip saw their net revenues fall 4% year-over-year to $2.1 billion. "All that's going on in the global economy and the U.S. economy, there is impact [at the value-oriented properties]," said CEO William Hornbuckle during an earnings call Wednesday. The company saw a "severely abnormally midweek weakness" at its budget resorts Luxor and Excalibur through July. Another problem spot was the MGM Grand, which had severe remodeling disruptions. Starting in May, after the tariff announcements and lasting for nine weeks, the company saw year-over-year declines in bookings. However, it has more recently seen an increase in bookings "in 3 of the last 4 weeks in a row." Premium travelers didn't pull back in Vegas. In the second quarter, MGM Resorts' luxury properties saw gains. At the Bellagio, average daily rates were up 4%.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Opinion: Why Las Vegas is in a death spiral
It has just gone 6.30am at Hurrah's Casino on the legendary Las Vegas Strip and 60-year-old Bettie has completed a marathon four-hour session on the slot machines. 'One hundred and sixty dollars down,' she tells me, puffing on a cigarette and heading gingerly out into the 40-degree morning heat. On Las Vegas Boulevard, Bettie points towards the Mirage Hotel opposite, the strip's first and most iconic mega-resort, which closed earlier this week after 35 years in operation. 'You wanna know Vegas?' she asks with a grin. 'That was Vegas.' Once the entertainment capital of the world – famous for its luxury hotels, high-end casinos, breathtaking shows and legendary musical residencies – Las Vegas has morphed into something altogether more downbeat and, as I discovered this week, sinister. Visitor numbers are plummeting. The first quarter of 2025 saw a 6.9 percent decrease in tourism on the same period last year, driven largely by a fall in international tourists. Remarkably, Americans now make up 88 percent of all visits to Vegas. The number of British tourists has fallen by 25 percent since a peak of almost three-quarters of a million in 2019. Rip-off prices are partially to blame. Las Vegas made headlines earlier this year when it emerged that MGM's Aria Hotel is selling 500ml bottles of water from the minibar for an unfathomable $26 (£19). Indeed, prices on the Strip have spiralled out of control in recent years with tourists telling the Mail of spending $15 (£11) on a fruit juice, $20 (£15) on coffee and a croissant and $18.25 (£14) on a small can of Bud Light beer. 'I would say these are New York prices, but they're not,' says 33-year-old investment banker Victor. 'They're even more expensive. I had a steak with a friend at a chain restaurant in the Cosmopolitan and one course set us back $300. It's the tips that get you, with up 25 percent of the bill the norm in some places.' He adds with a wry smile: 'Maybe I'm in the wrong profession.' But prices are only part of the problem. The city's opioid crisis has become so bad – especially among the homeless – that one leading rehabilitation charity has been paid by certain casinos to forcibly detain and remove those lingering around their premises and haranguing paying guests. Meanwhile, the proliferation of online gambling and indeed the emergence of other entertainment hubs – notably parts of the Middle East such as Dubai and Riyadh – have taken the shine off Sin City. While once Vegas was also the boxing capital of the world and the place to see Mike Tyson in his prime, today's heavyweights are shunning it for the riches of Saudi Arabia. British champion Anthony Joshua, for example, fought two of his last three bouts at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. And so, with skyrocketing prices, global sport stars and musicians choosing to perform elsewhere, casinos ditching live games for electronic betting terminals and a drugs crisis ravaging the city, Las Vegas is on the ropes. The question is: can it recover? 'We used to be considered Sin City,' agrees David Marlon, founder of the hugely successful rehab clinic Vegas Stronger. 'Glitz, glamour, the place you go to for the best DJs, the best nightclubs, the best gambling, the best resorts… But today, you know there's gonna be panhandling, vagrancy, the smell of weed… and it's gonna be kind of dirty.' Homelessness in Las Vegas has exploded, with a conservative estimate of around 8,000 people unhoused across a city of just over half a million. That's more homeless people than in London, a city almost 16 times as populous. However, according to Marlon – who entered the charity sector after two decades working in insurance, during which time he developed and recovered from his own cocaine addiction – homelessness is not the real issue. 'It's really an addiction epidemic,' he tells me from his office, a short flight of stairs from the clinic's medical rooms, yoga studio, boxing gym and therapy centre. 'Some 94 percent of the homeless people who walk through our door have a diagnosed substance-use disorder. And it's three things: alcohol, opioids and amphetamines.' Indeed, walk along the busy Las Vegas Boulevard at any time of day and you will see people clearly homeless and often under the influence of drugs. One morning I saw a man washing his clothes in a fountain beside Caesar's Palace, hanging them to dry on the hotel fencing. Another – who can't have been more than 40 – was stopped by security walking between blackjack tables in Caesar's Palace. His arm was in a cast, while his jeans were ripped and riding down towards his knees. In one hand he carried a bottle of unidentified contents while the other arm hung limp by his side, his face expressionless, his eyes vacant. Perhaps most alarming, however, are the hundreds of people I saw each day, passed out in the searing heat – which topped 46 degrees this week – their skin burnt and peeled, a ghastly tricolour of black, red and pink. 'We lost 520 to heat-related death last summer,' David admits, grimly. His downtown rehab facility is just a stone's throw from a number of improvised roadside encampments where the city's homeless have erected shelters out of old tarpaulin and umbrellas. 'And we're going to lose more this summer… nobody should be living on the streets here in the Mojave Desert.' But while David's 'calling' is the well-being of the addicts he helps, the casinos are more interested in protecting the welfare of their paying customers – or at least their wallets. 'Kenny Epstein,' David begins with a smile. 'He runs the El Cortez hotel on the Strip. He said, 'Dave, my high-rollers are telling me that their wives are saying they can't come down here any more because they're getting harassed in the street when they leave!' 'So, I had my outreach team walk around his casino three times a day, and we kind of scoop up anybody homeless and put them in the van. It's what I call a 'compassionate assertive intervention'. Because there's no real conversation to be had with a guy who's actively psychotic on methamphetamines.' 'Vegas is a billion-dollar brand,' David concludes, showing me a number of over-sized cheques from hotels including El Cortez, The Venetian and The Mirage. 'And the casinos recognize that these 8,000 unhoused are tarnishing our brand.' And yet, when it comes to the Las Vegas 'brand', it is rising prices that seem – above all else – to be leaving a sour taste in tourists' mouths. Of course, prices are high across America, not just in Vegas. In fact, the cost of living Stateside is more than 15 percent higher than in the UK. However, the Vegas Strip stands head and shoulders above most other parts of the country. 'Even in some of the more local establishments, prices recently have jumped up 25, 30 percent,' local writer and Vegas expert Sam Novak tells the Mail. 'It's no longer affordable to do the simplest of things. From a simple dinner to a night out with cocktails for your friends, it's prohibitive. It has already damaged the appeal of Vegas.' The cost of accommodation, too, is a factor. Once a famous value destination, the average hotel stay in Vegas in January of this year cost $208 (£155) per night. That's up from $171 (£127) in 2022. And these numbers do not include the astronomic 'resort fees' – supposedly to pay for facilities such as swimming pools and gyms – which became commonplace a decade ago and are added to bills regardless of whether one uses the facilities or not. For prestige hotels such as the Four Seasons, Encore, Caesar's Palace and The Bellagio, the additional cost is more than $60 (£45) per night. On top of this, the vast majority of hotels charge an average of $25 (£19) a day for parking, adding another $100 onto the already bloated cost of a long weekend. Other hidden costs include room service delivery fees. At The Bellagio – famed for its lavish fountain display – having food served in your room costs $25 before you've even chosen what you want from the menu. The days when casinos gave out free steak, lobster and cocktails to keep their guests gambling are long gone. This is now a town where nothing comes for free. 'It is expensive. We paid $33 for a burger at the Excalibur hotel. And over $7 for a bottle of Gatorade,' admits 23-year-old Hugo, who has been visiting Vegas with three pals on a road trip around the West. 'It's a strange mix here of happiness and sadness, you see people having a good time, smiling, taking photos right next to homeless people or people losing money at a casino first thing in the morning.' Despite falling visitor numbers, resort casinos continue to post large profits. 'The economics may reflect that tourists are spending more,' Sam Novak concludes, 'but they may be enjoying themselves less, which ultimately is not a self-sustaining model.' While hotels are commanding larger fees and taking more on the casino floor, they're also providing fewer services. 'MGM laid off their entire concierge department, saying people prefer apps. I don't know if that's true. Maybe they do,' reveals local economics analyst Steven Campbell. 'There's no bell desk service at the Excalibur now. You have to bring your own luggage up to the rooms.' At the same time, resorts are increasingly offering self-service check-ins on an iPad, casinos are ditching traditional table games such as roulette and blackjack for digital equivalents at an electronic betting terminal and – in some extreme cases – even using robotic arms to serve food, such as at a cookie stall in Caesars's Palace or the Tipsy Robot bar off the Strip. 'I just think that people feel the value isn't there for the dollars and cents they pay,' says Campbell. 'It's now a dollar-first, experience-second city.' When it comes to musical acts, it's a similarly depressing story. Claudio and Ivan from Brazil love coming to Vegas for the residencies the city is famous for. Speaking to them beneath the famous 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign, they admitted spending more than $1,600 (£1,190) on tickets to see Lady Gaga and the Backstreet Boys this week. Similarly, R'n'B star Bruno Mars – playing at the Park MGM – is charging more than $500 a ticket, making him the most expensive artist in the world to see live. But when it comes to music, the price point is not the only pinch. Far from the heady days of Frank Sinatra and Liberace to Elvis Presley and Elton John, today the city's reputation has been shattered by a string of underwhelming performers on top of absurd ticket prices. 'I'm really concerned so many high-profile artists have created a negative experience for people when they come here,' continues Sam Novak, referencing Kelly Clarkson, who has just opened her show at the Colosseum inside Caesar's Palace. Clarkson cancelled two of her opening performances minutes before the curtain was set to rise, justifying herself to disappointed fans by claiming on social media: 'The prep and rehearsals have taken a toll on my voice.' When she did finally go on, many were still left disappointed. Far from the glitz and glamour of old-school Vegas, Clarkson's set resembles an 'intimate recording studio' with warm lighting, oak panels and pictures on the walls. Clarkson – who wears black jeans and a T-shirt for the gig – described the set as 'chic and comfortable'. So not exactly Liberace, then. 'You come to Vegas for bright lights, sequins and razzmatazz,' 58-year-old Colin from west London tells the Mail after the show. 'Instead, it felt like Kelly at the kitchen table.' In spite of everything, there is still hope for Vegas. The recently shuttered Mirage has been bought by Hard Rock, a hospitality brand, which is set to turn it into a '700ft guitar-shaped hotel'. Meanwhile, the opening of The Sphere – the remarkable performance venue coated entirely with LED screens – has made Vegas an entertainment trailblazer again, with a profile even those big-spending Saudis must envy. 'I went to the opening of Backstreet Boys show at The Sphere on Saturday night,' says Sam Novak. 'And it was an incredible experience. You realise when you're in there with 20,000 people that this is something you cannot get anywhere else.' But bright lights, showgirls, roulette wheels and top singers are disappearing. This is now a city with more billboards for injury lawyers than for anything else. A city where the casinos are sterile, dingy places crammed full of fixed-odds betting terminals. A city where the burlesque shows are half-empty and the musicians charge hundreds of dollars for a ticket. A city plagued by drugs and homelessness. A city seemingly caught in a death spiral. A city not so much sinking into the Nevada sand as melting into the tarmac.
Daily Mail
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Las Vegas's death spiral: Homelessness has exploded, there's a drugs plague and hundreds have burned to death passed out in the sun. Special report by FRED KELLY
It has just gone 6.30am at Hurrah's Casino on the legendary Las Vegas Strip and 60-year-old Bettie has completed a marathon four-hour session on the slot machines. 'One hundred and sixty dollars down,' she tells me, puffing on a cigarette and heading gingerly out into the 40-degree morning heat. On Las Vegas Boulevard, Bettie points towards the Mirage Hotel opposite, the strip's first and most iconic mega-resort, which closed earlier this week after 35 years in operation.
Daily Mail
16-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Billionaire shocks Vegas locals with what he's done to prime $270m parcel of land on iconic Strip
A billionaire shocked Vegas locals after he turned a prime $270 million parcel of land into a parking lot on the city's iconic Strip. Tilman Fertitta, a Texas businessman who serves as the US ambassador to Italy, had plans to build a luxury Las Vegas resort on the Nevada city's 'Center Strip,' just across from the upscale mall The Shops at Crystals. He purchased the land in 2022 before filing to transform it into a 43-story, 2,240-room hotel and casino, fit with a spa, wedding chapel, restaurants, an auto showroom and more, according to county records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Fertitta's project started to come to life, as Clark County commissioners approved his plan in October 2022 and the county Building Department issued three demolition permits to tear down the previous structures on the site that same day. But, all of that came to a halt after President Donald Trump announced Fertitta, 68, was nominated to serve as the ambassador to Italy in December. Fertitta, who already owns Golden Nugget Casinos and the NBA's Houston Rockets, wrote a letter to the State Department in March detailing the steps he planned to take to avoid conflict with his approved nomination, which included him resigning from his corporate positions and leaving the luxury resort in the wind. His company, Fertitta Entertainment, did not specify if the resort would one day be built while the parking lot opens its doors to the public. 'All options remain under consideration,' a spokesperson with the hospitality and entertainment company told the outlet. The six-acre lot is now home to a new self-run parking lot that charges a minimum of $14.99 for up to three hours. The space has no ticket machines, barrier arms or attendants on site, leaving drivers to dictate when they want to park there by scanning a QR code to enter their payment method, phone number, and how long they plan to leave their car there. 'Just drive out when you're ready and we'll automatically charge your account,' a sign on the lot's fence read. The lot was previously home to souvenir shops, a Tex-Mex restaurant, Travelodge Motel and a tattoo parlor. After buying and demolishing what was there, a shift in plans arose in Spring 2023 when Fertitta, who is worth $11.3 billion, announced Las Vegas casino executive Maurice Wooden had joined the company as president of luxury hotel development. Then, in early 2024, Wooden was named president of the new and luxurious hotel, Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Afterward, Fertitta asked for a time extension on what was set to be a new resort on the lot. Rebecca Miltenberger, an attorney with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, who represents the billionaire, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he was 'diligently working through the development process' at the time. Unfortunately, he was 'not able to obtain all necessary permits' that he needed to start construction before approvals on the structure expired, Miltenberger wrote in a letter to the county last fall. Fertitta then faced an October 9, 2024 construction deadline, she added. County officials went on to approve an extension, giving him until October 19, 2025 to start working on the plan, according to records. While it remains unclear if he will follow through with his plan to build the resort, other developers might have their eyes on the land, including Eli Gindi. The New York developer, who built the new BLVD retail complex next to Fertitta's land, told the outlet he considers the Texas businessman to be 'one of the smartest guys in the world' who will build the property if he desires. Still, Gindi is hopeful Fertitta might allow him to buy the site. 'Maybe he'll sell it to use, and I'll be happy to buy it from him.' Gindi added. Daily Mail contacted Fertitta Entertainment for comment. When Trump announced Fertitta would be the ambassador to Italy, he called him an 'accomplished businessman' who he was 'pleased' with the appointment. 'Tilman is an accomplished businessman, who has founded and built one of our Country's premier entertainment and real estate companies, employing approximately 50,000 Americans,' the president said. 'Tilman has a long history of giving back to the community through numerous philanthropic initiatives, which include children's charities, Law Enforcement, and the medical community. 'Additionally, Tilman is the longest serving Chairman of the Board of Regents for the University of Houston. He also owns the Houston Rockets Basketball Team. Congratulations to Tilman, and his remarkable family!' Fertitta has owned the Rockets since 2017 and has made his fortune as the chairman of Landry's, a corporation which includes casinos, hotels and restaurants such as Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Economic concerns, tensions with Canada have Las Vegas tourism rates falling
Las Vegas' hotel-casino operators are all about the deals this summer. Resorts World is offering up to 40% off room rates and a $75 daily resort credit, plus free self-parking through Aug. 28. The Strat's summer value package includes room rates starting at $49, plus a $25 daily dining credit. Other operators are dropping prices for locals to boost staycations. The discounts come at a time when international and budget-conscious travelers are hesitating to book their next trip to the Strip. May was the fifth consecutive month Las Vegas has seen a year-over-year decline in tourism traffic, with visitor volume down 6.5% to just under 3.5 million people for the month, according to figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. 'I think there's an uptick (in deals) due to the environment we're in,' said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA. "The operators here have the ability to turn a number of dials based on demand, and we're – like the rest of the United States – down a little bit from where we were the past couple of years.' The pullback in visitation comes as consumers grow uneasy about the economy under President Donald Trump's new trade policies, which experts warn will drive up consumer prices. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index fell 5.4 points in June, hovering near lows not seen since the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. With tariffs and higher prices top of mind, consumers were more pessimistic about job availability and business conditions throughout the remainder of the year, according to the report. Meanwhile, consumer spending dipped 0.1% in May, according to the Commerce Department, with Americans holding back on purchases at hotels, restaurants and bars. 'When there's so much uncertainty in the economy, people make decisions more slowly. They tend to wait,' said Stephen Miller, an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Hill said that uncertainty is showing up in Las Vegas' visitation data. 'The majority of the country has to pay attention to their budget and is concerned about how they're doing economically, or what the status of their job might be,' he said. That could be especially true if travelers no longer see Las Vegas as a value destination. Resort fees, parking rates and higher prices for food and drinks are a common gripe with travelers online, although Hill said those views tend to be more anecdotal than a driving force behind the recent slip in visitation. Still, 'when people start to be more budget conscious, those kind of concerns understandably come to the forefront,' he said. Andrew Page of Tampa, Florida, said he has cut back on his Las Vegas trips in recent years because he no longer thinks he's getting his money's worth. All of the extra fees and price hikes, he said, make him feel like the city is overpriced. 'When I do my travels for pleasure, I'm picking locations where there's an overall good experience, you're getting a lot of value for your dollar, somewhere that's a little more exclusive,' said Page, 54, who works in tech innovation advisory. 'Vegas just doesn't pop up on the list, and it used to be a place we loved to go." A decline in international visitation has also hit Las Vegas' tourism traffic. While Las Vegas' tourism decline is led by a slip in domestic travel, which is typically behind roughly 88% of total visitation, the city has also seen fewer international travelers, especially from Canada. Hill said visitation from the country is down roughly 15% so far this year. Brian Faulkner, a 46-year-old from Calgary, Alberta, who works in film and TV production, said he and his wife typically visit Las Vegas anywhere from four to eight times a year. Direct flights make it easy to squeeze in a quick trip during a long weekend, he said, and the couple enjoys the city for its food and casino comps. But the couple has decided to hold off on returning while Trump is in office, fed up with the U.S. president's talk about making Canada the 51st state. Instead, Faulkner is funneling his travel budget back into Canada and other destinations. He had just returned from a camping trip north of Calgary when he spoke to USA TODAY, and his wife plans to visit Scotland at the end of July. 'A lot of Canadians are taking more pride in Canada, and we are traveling within our own borders. My wife and I, we have actually been doing more date nights locally to try to see our city through the eyes of a tourist,' he said. 'We're trying to do the patriotic thing for our country.' The decline in Las Vegas is in line with national trends. Total international visitation during the first four months of the year was down roughly 1%, with visitation from Canada down 14.5%, according to the International Trade Administration. Blair Yaworsky, a warehouse manager based in Edmonton, Alberta, said he's not sure he'll ever be comfortable booking another trip to the U.S. Yaworsky, 53, has been a frequent traveler to the States, especially Las Vegas. But like Faulkner, Yaworsky is holding back on further U.S. travel due to the Trump administration's actions. Talk of tariffs and making Canada the 51st state was upsetting, but Yaworsky – who is of Ukrainian heritage – said the administration's public spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was his last straw. Yaworsky said he has already canceled a trip to Montana with his nephews, noting that he's uneasy taking them to the U.S. because they are mixed race. His last trip to the country was in May, a four-night stay and farewell to Las Vegas. Yaworsky said he hit up his favorite restaurants, attended the Punk Rock Bowling music festival and did a bit of gambling. 'I just love the escapism that Las Vegas offers. It's, quite frankly, going to suck not going down. It's a huge part of our lives,' he said. 'I've had to make peace that maybe I traveled there for the last time.' No Canada! North-of-the-border buyers pull back as trade war heats up Looking forward, Hill is confident that Las Vegas visitation numbers will bounce back. Hill said the city has a lineup of events, meetings and trade shows scheduled for this fall that should boost traffic. For instance, this November's SEMA Show, the Specialty Equipment Market Association's automotive trade show, is set to bring in roughly 160,000 visitors, according to the LVCVA. Next year, CONEXPO-CON/AGG, a construction trade show held every three years, is expected to bring in nearly 140,000 visitors. The Sweets and Snacks Expo, also held in Las Vegas every third year, returns in May with an estimated 16,000 attendees. 'There's some optimism coming into the fall and beyond,' Hill said. '2026 is almost certainly the best trade show and group business meeting outlook that we've ever had.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Las Vegas resorts push summer deals with tourism on the decline Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
