Despite midweek New Year’s Eve, more visitors expected in Las Vegas this year

It doesn’t seem to matter whether New Year’s Eve falls toward the weekend or at midweek for Las Vegas.

It’s going to be a happening place when the clock strikes midnight transitioning from 2024 to 2025 Tuesday night.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Harry Reid International Airport are projecting more New Year’s Eve visitors this year than last, despite New Year’s Eve 2023 falling on a Sunday and this year’s falling on a Tuesday.

“While New Year’s Eve falls on a Tuesday this year, midweek holidays tend to see slightly different travel patterns, with some travelers opting for extended trips leading up to or immediately following the holiday,” airport spokesman Luke Nimmo said in an email.

In other words, some travelers are extending their Christmas travels a few more days to capture New Year’s Eve as well while others will likely show up New Year’s Eve and stay through the following weekend, staying just in time for the CES crowd to make its way to Las Vegas.

Thousands are expected to make their way to the Strip for the “America’s Party” fireworks display or greet the new year at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.

The Transportation Security Administration at Reid projected earlier in December that it would screen more than 1.1 million travelers during the official end-of-year holiday period that runs from Dec. 19 through Jan. 2.

The TSA anticipated the busiest travel days for the airport would be Dec. 26-28 as well as Jan. 1-2.

More New Year’s Eve visitors expected

The LVCVA, meanwhile, is forecasting around 343,000 New Year’s Eve visitors this year, compared with 342,000 a year ago.

“When the holiday falls on Friday through Monday, it offers an easier long weekend for many travelers to book,” said Kevin Bagger, vice president of the LVCVA Research Center. “But we still tend to see pretty strong occupancy for the night of New Year’s Eve, even when it falls midweek like this year when it will fall on a Tuesday night.”

One of the biggest differences between this year and last year is that Las Vegas has fewer hotel rooms, thanks mainly to the closures of the Tropicana and Mirage resorts in 2024. With a slightly higher number of visitors this year and fewer hotel rooms to accommodate them, Bagger expects the hotel occupancy rate to climb slightly.

The LVCVA forecast is for occupancy to be at around 95 percent for New Year’s Eve compared with 94.6 percent a year ago. There were 152,289 rooms in the Southern Nevada inventory at the end of 2023, but just 150,859 this year.

Inflation and the higher occupancy rate also are expected to move the anticipated economic impact of the holiday this year. Bagger is anticipating direct, indirect and induced economic impact of $715.5 million this year, a 2.4 percent increase over $698.4 million last year.

Direct spending is money brought to the destination by visitors while indirect and induced spending involves money respent from the direct spending.

A survey of room rates conducted Dec. 24 indicated the average nightly price per room for Tuesday through Thursday is $254.86, down slightly from the $261.76 average calculated in a similar survey last year.

The Review-Journal averaged room rates for a Tuesday-through-Thursday stay at 125 hotels based on rates posted on Hotels.com.

Several hotels — Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Palazzo among them — were sold out and not included in the survey.

Among the highest hotel prices surveyed were $845 a night at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, $724 a night at Wynn and Encore Las Vegas, $649 a night at Aria and $555 a night at The Venetian.

Hotel rooms for under $150 were rare, but a traveler could get a room at Buffalo Bill’s in Primm south of Las Vegas for $74 a night.

Twelve downtown Las Vegas hotels showed an average price of $211.33 a night with Circa at $389 a night and Main Street Station going for $133 a night.

Once the crowds go home after the New Year’s celebration, thousands more will make their way to Las Vegas for CES, one of the city’s largest trade shows, dedicated to consumer electronics products. The trade show opens Jan. 7, but pre-show media demonstrations will begin Jan. 5.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.