Tourism is Lifeblood of Las Vegas Economy
By: Caroline Bleakley (8News Now) March 2014
LAS VEGAS — Tourism is the lifeblood of Las Vegas and a new report is showing positive signs for the economy. Most notably, the convention business is seeing some major growth.
Almost 40 million people visit Las Vegas each year and they spend a lot of money. Every dollar they spend affects people who live and work in the valley.
“We like to come out here at least once a year. Have fun and gamble,” said Valerie McKinney from Texas.
Aside from gambling, big events, such as NASCAR, also draw tourists.
The overall economic impact of the tourism industry in southern Nevada last year was more than $45 billion.
“I think the headline for the report this year is that the economic impacts remain remarkably large,” said Jeremy Aguero, a principal analyst for Applied Analysis.
He presented a yearly update of the economic impacts of the tourism industry at Tuesday’s board meeting of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
“We’re talking about as many as 376,000 employees whose job is either directly or indirectly dependent on our tourism economy,” Aguero said.
He says every single job in southern Nevada is tied to tourism and each worker here can thank tourism for part of their paycheck.
“it’s roughly 24 cents out of every dollar that’s paid to every worker every year, is directly dependent on tourism on the decision of tourists to come to Las Vegas.”
The Las Vegas convention center saw huge increases in 2013 with 163,000 additional convention visitors. Aguero says each conventioneer spent 60 bucks more per trip in 2013.
“Right now things are looking good for 2014,” He said.
As Las Vegas looks to the future, tourists can’t wait to come back.
“I wish I could afford to come here more often,” said Alistair McGechen, a Canadian.
Las Vegas keeps up with the times with new shows, restaurants and hotels.
