Vegas Ranks Third-Most Popular Thanksgiving Destination

By Jane Shaw Senior Editor Updated: 11/23/2022

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Third-Most Popular Thanksgiving Destination

In a recent report from the AAA, they announced that Las Vegas is one of the most popular destinations for Thanksgiving – coming in third after Disneyworld and Disneyland.  In total, around 55 million Americans are expected to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to the AAA. That’s an increase of 1.5% over 2021.

During this period, around 4.5 million people are expected to fly – and that’s nearly an 8% increase over 2021. A further 49 million people are expected to travel by car.

Busy Airports and Roads Predicted

Of course, with so many more travelers taking to the roads and sky this Thanksgiving, lines are going to last longer at airports, and congestion is going to be heavier on roads. However, this increase in traffic is welcome news for Lori Nelson-Kraft, the senior vice president of communications of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. She said:

Las Vegas offers an unparalleled entertainment experience that can’t be replicated anywhere else. We see holidays as another opportunity to host visitors as we not only continue to offer 24/7 non-stop fun, but our resorts also infuse the holiday spirit in all they do.

A number of other figureheads in the land-based casino industry in Vegas also voiced their approval of the news – especially as visitor volume, gross gaming revenue, and occupancy rates dropped to almost zero during the height of the COVID19 pandemic.

Vegas Travel Continues to Increase

However, it wasn’t an immediate shift from COVID19-level volume to the number of patrons heading to Vegas today. In fact, Stephen Miller, the director of research at the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research, noted that Las Vegas relies very heavily on travel and tourism to help prop up its local economy. He also noted that the “road back” from the pandemic has taken several months, rather than days or weeks.

He also noted that sports betting is going to become a prominent factor in the coming years – especially as more states continue to legalize online sports betting. 

However, it’s not all good news; Miller points out that the number of visitors, the gross gaming revenue, occupancy rates, and the number of passengers traveling through Harry Reid International Airport have been falling for the last four or five months.

Whether this is due to the current economic climate, which has seen soaring living costs, is open to interpretation; however, one of the things that we have seen from Las Vegas in the last few years is that they’re trying to open up to more than just gamblers.

For example, many family-friendly resorts have now opened their doors – allowing the city to capitalize on a completely different demographic to the one they used to target. This could be one of the reasons why so many people are expected to head to the city this Thanksgiving – although it’s likely a significant portion of visitors will be looking to hit the land-based casinos as soon as they arrive.