Las Vegas has slipped in popularity as a domestic Labor Day destination, falling to 10th place on AAA’s annual ranking.
The city typically lands in the top six, AAA Nevada spokesperson John Treanor said.
Seattle claimed the top position, followed by Orlando, New York, Boston, Anchorage, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver and Miami.
Las Vegas is still expected to draw significant crowds during the final vacation weekend of summer. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority projects 320,000 visitors generating an economic impact of $673.6 million. This represents a modest decline from the 326,000 Labor Day weekend visitors who visited in 2024.
Treanor said the company’s travel advisors are seeing a double-digit decline in bookings for Las Vegas for the year. That’s close to the drop in visitation tracked by the visitors authority, who on Friday said Las Vegas saw a 12% decline in visitation, or around 420,000 fewer people, last month compared to July 2024.
But Labor Day can still provide a respite in what’s been a slower summer for Las Vegas. AAA’s analysis found a 9% increase in overall domestic travel for the holiday, according to the roadside assistance company’s news release.
AAA advisors are also seeing customers prioritize value, which means more people taking vacations “a car ride away,” Treanor said.
Despite overall visitation being down, auto traffic is up 1.1% this year, the LVCVA said. In 2024, 54% of visitors arrived in Las Vegas via ground transportation, it reported.
Andrew Woods, director of UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, believes Las Vegas is “facing a different consumer” than it was immediately after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted.
“Our big operators need to adjust their pricing strategy to meet that new consumer,” Woods said. He later underscored the current high costs associated with alcohol, parking and water bottles, the latter of which has landed Vegas in negative headlines.
Woods found Orlando’s second place spot on AAA’s list notable as there’s been debate over whether the soft visitation this year is Las Vegas-specific or more related to the United States’ broader politics and economy.
“Orlando’s numbers were actually mixed,” Woods said. “Comparing the two, Orlando doesn’t seem to be doing as bad as Vegas. So it tells me, ‘Is this more of a Vegas story?’”
The strength of the cruise industry is also evident in AAA’s rankings, with popular cruise destinations Seattle and Anchorage landing in the top five domestic destinations. Vancouver, Canada, like last year, is the most popular international spot for Labor Day, according to AAA.
Woods said the industry is the “perfect example of the times right now”: people want to be confident when they set aside money for a vacation that they don’t go over budget, and many cruises include food and entertainment in their price tag.
“The solution here is to replicate what the cruise industry does,” he said. “Give them confidence that when they buy the ticket and the package with the hotel, they’re not gonna get hit with a bunch of fees.”
At the same time, Strip resorts have rolled out a number of consumer-friendly deals for the summer.
Resorts World brought back free parking and The Strat had rooms going for $49 after taxes and the resort fee, with Sahara offering a similar deal.
There’s a “rising consumer sentiment that would suggest that Las Vegas has become cost prohibitive for a number of consumers,” economic analyst Jeremy Aguero said earlier this month. “At the same time, those consumers are feeling squeezed relative to their income.”
“That’s a challenge for us, so I’m concerned,” he said, but added that declaring Las Vegas dead is “nothing else other than ridiculous hyperbole.”