VegasChatter: Visitor Info Statistics - A Glimpse At The Numbers

http://www.vegaschatter.com/story/2014/6/25/183739/364/vegas-travel/Las+Vegas+Visitor+Info+That+May+Surprise+You

This is interesting to me and I am sure will be to many of you as well.

It also illustrates why the hotels are shifting the focus from gambling to entertainment...

I wonder what has caused the 11% bump in the 30s demo? The economy strengthening?

I am surprised the driving numbers are higher than flying. I wonder what percentage of the 58 are from CA? Many have said that SLS is hitching itself to the club goers from California and these numbers suggest that they could have some traction.

Surprising indeed. Is this a direct effect of the worrying about being cheated on the fares? And it also makes me wonder why the cab companies are putting more cabs on the roads when the numbers don't show a huge ridership? Why water down the product? More drivers means more idling empty cabs which means more drivers looking for fudge the routes to hit their stupidly imposed quotas for higher fares by their bosses.

Much lower numbers than I expected here

Ahhh yes, the meat and potatoes of the report...gambling.

11% less people are gambling over a five year period. Although people's dollars spent increased the lesser amount of people gambling is why the rules are getting shittier for us. While the resorts are targeting those club dollars to make up for the drop in gaming they're tightening up the rules is, I believe, a direct effect to less people sitting down to wager. Welcome to the shitty video poker and blackjack rules forever.

 

Vegas isn't dumb. They will shift to where the money is and it isn't gambling as #1 anymore. Clubs and shopping. That's what the new money wants. So 21 to 39 is 42%. Not surprised. That would be Generation X and Y I think. Not BB.

 

I think the 11% rise is people who will have come out of University / early jobs as the recession began and moved into better paying jobs. The younger age group there are coming into a horrid job market still and just have less disposable income.

 

I remember we discussed these numbers once before in another thread and I felt this was one of the most telling stats. Also it is probably one of the most accurate stats in these self-surveys. By the way you can see an entire breakdown of stats between Airline vs Ground visitors in this report: http://www.lvcva.com/includes/content/images/media/docs/2012-LV-VPS-Air-vs-Ground.pdf

It shows you how much of the rebound in Vegas has been due to a shift in its visitor base versus simply the general rebound from a strengthening economy. Overall visitors flying in to Vegas is still down since before the recession but its been made up by a big increase in visitors driving in. And if you look at the crosstabs the visitors driving in are likely to be younger, poorer, and spend less on everything except nightclubs and dayclubs than visitors who fly in.

So a key area a casino operator can try to tap for growth is finding more ways to monetize the younger visitors driving in from places like SoCal and getting them to increase their spend, instead of looking for ways to increase the number of people flying which is probably a much harder proposition.

 

Those who fly in don't really get the primacy of the drive-in crowd, and most particularly those from So Cal, certainly the #1 single geographic cohort to Vegas' success. There are some 25 million people down that way. And for all the idiotic talk of some party train someday reaching Vegas, this is a have-car/me-drive culture.

The gambling-or-other divide tipped toward other some 10 years ago.

The Millennials are the new Boomers, a juggernaut of a bulge of population that seems to be taking its parents' (Boomers') penchant for living for the moment and just getting to it far earlier in life.

 

I'm in the 30-39 range. I didn't have the money to go to Vegas in my 20s.

 

That's what he means, not having the money but going anyway. Don't think the Boomers had a corner on that. They did like all the new toys coming out so dam fast one couldn't keep up as it is today. I would never, ever stand in line all day for the latest, greatest. It just never last very long these days.

 

I still don't understand the bigger shift away from gambling to clubs/entertainment. Sure, the percentages have increased but the average gambling budget is still more than food, beverage, shows, shopping, and transportation combined.

 

The new, young money is in the club, eating, drinking and otherwise up in their rooms partying. Then sleeping all day{not gambling} until they get going in the evening when they do it all over again.
Vegas posted stats a while back and broke it down if I remember it right.

 

If I were young, I could gamble and lose my limited funds very quickly or go to a club, party for hours with lots of folks. Limited funds. Lose or party. Kinda makes sense when I think of it like that.

I was wondering how many Vegas visitors are repeats. For many gamblers, Vegas is our Mecca. We return. SoCal partiers probably return because it's easy. How about the young ones who have to fly in.

 

Good post.

I understand maximizing profits on the trends. And the nightclubs and dayclubs, while not my style, are hot and the resorts would be dumb to not get in on it. What I don't understand is why they cannot cater to both?

Why worsen the rules and conditions for gambling? Wouldn't it make sense to entice people to want to gamble and not grouse and grumble about the poor pay tables or odds?

 

People are going to gamble that want to gamble. The youngsters just want to do something else. Gambling to them is just a well I'll sit and talk and spend 20 bucks.

 

The article glanced over the over 40 demographic who have disposable income, and of which Women in the 50's are statistically the highest percentage of gamblers (or so I have heard).
I have come to Vegas more in the past 10 years (35 to 45) then I ever did in my 20's. Who from Gen X had money in there twenties unless you made it off junk bonds in the 80s or had a job working
in defense during the Regan presidency.

 

I'm thinking women over 50 go to Vegas because their husbands do. What, maybe 5% of 50 year old women just go on their own, maybe.

 

Yes I think so, but I'm biased.

The LVCVA has a bunch of reports on their site and if you look through them there is a lot you can learn about the average visitor: http://www.lvcva.com/stats-and-facts/visitor-statistics/

For instance just skimming through the 2013 Visitors by Market Segment, they break out "casino guests" as a segment and its defined as people getting casino rate or complimentary rooms, and it is pretty interesting:

Casino guests (comp or casino rate rooms) make up 25% of visitors.
84% of casino guests gamble while they are there and 38% of casino guests say they come primarily to gamble.
Casino guests by far are the most likely to return to Vegas compared to general tourists, conventioneers, and package purchases (which they break out separately).
Casino guests are the most likely to say they were "very satisfied" with their trip.
Casino guests are also just as likely as general tourists to have gone to a club with a cover charge. It looks like shopping is the main thing they are less likely to do.

I don't know what the 25% of visitors coming in on comp and casino rate rooms has been historically. But it is still a big number in my opinion, in fact 76% of those casino guests were on comp rooms. Which means about 1 in 5 visitors has their room completely comped.

 

Comped or not

Comped or not, more go to vegas to do other stuff then gambling now.

 

It seems, you missed the point.

 

So I suppose their theory is that no one will buck and will keep coming back regardless of whether they alter the gaming conditions. If this is the case I could maybe understand it if there weren't local casinos popping up everywhere. But at some point people will eschew Vegas for the locals. So it is push push push and then when their numbers drop they loosen back up and say "we listened to our customers and have improved out VP/blackjack.whatever".

 

I think you're underestimating us. Look at those taking vacation packages, bus tours, etc. I don't use those but I'd have no trouble travelling on my own.