SACRAMENTO, United States, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Neon ads for Las Vegas promise Cyber Week hotel bargains and fat dining credits if visitors book now for trips stretching well into 2026.
The city's tourism authority is bundling two- and three-night stays with 200 to 250 U.S. dollars in food vouchers and promoting discounts of up to 55 percent at resorts on the Las Vegas Strip as part of a destination-wide sale that runs through Dec. 5.
The aggressive push came as visitor numbers sag. September arrivals in Las Vegas fell 8.8 percent from a year earlier, to about 3 million people, according to data released by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
A separate tourism update said October visitors dropped a further 4.4 percent year-on-year, while a forecast cited by industry publication Travel Weekly projected total 2025 visitation to reach 39.1 million, about 6 percent below 2024.
LVCVA chief executive Steve Hill called Las Vegas "a bit of a canary" for the wider economy because trips to the city are easy to postpone when budgets feel tight.
"We are certainly seeing a downturn that is largely driven by consumer sentiment, concern about the economy, jobs, and affordability," Hill said in an interview on Nov. 19 about the city's 2025 slowdown.
On social media, some visitors mentioned that they had decided the neon-soaked Las Vegas Strip was no longer worth the cost. The 4.2-mile street was lined with upscale casino hotels, gambling floors, a variety of shops and restaurants. Attractions like the soaring, choreographed Fountains of Bellagio and the High Roller observation wheel draw crowds.
"Vegas will cost me way too much, so I won't be back," wrote one solo traveler in the r/LasVegas forum on Reddit, saying they now feel priced out of a destination they once visited regularly.
Another user in the r/vegas community posted a trip report titled "Las Vegas is a great travel destination if you are ultra-rich (not for anyone else)," saying they were "shocked by the prices" and could have spent a month in Thailand for what five days in Las Vegas cost them.
Others say the high bills changed their relationship with the city. "This is the first time that I flew home feeling like I don't care if I ever come back," a longtime visitor wrote in r/LasVegas, recounting conference expenses that included nearly 30 dollars for two slices of pizza and more than 50 dollars for two mixed drinks.
The sense of strain is not limited to one desert city. Across the United States, surveys showed that households still wanted to travel but had to cut back on how far they go, how long they stay, and how much they spend.
Deloitte's 2025 Holiday Travel Survey found that 54 percent of Americans intend to take at least one trip between Thanksgiving and mid-January, similar to last year. But the same survey reported that the average holiday travel budget has fallen to 2,334 dollars, down 18 percent from 2024, and that the average number of planned trips dropped from 2.14 to 1.83.
Nearly one in three respondents told Deloitte their financial situation was worse than a year ago, up from 26 percent in 2024. Research summaries based on the same survey said that 38 percent of Americans felt they cannot afford to travel at all this holiday season, highlighting how economic anxiety is keeping some families at home.
People were just as careful while making summer travel plans. According to a national survey by the research company SSRS, 42 percent of Americans said their vacation plans were affected by the status of the economy and 41 percent said their plans were affected by fears of a possible recession.
About half of the people who traveled in the summer told SSRS that they were choosing shorter or cheaper trips, while almost 30 percent said they might cancel their plans altogether.
The research said that summer behavior provides "a window into the national mood" at a time when travel and tourism make up about 3 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and brought in 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars to the economy in 2022, according to numbers it cited from the U.S. International Trade Administration.
Despite the belt-tightening on trips, Americans are still spending heavily overall, especially online, as they chase discounts and use new tools to manage cash flow.
Adobe Analytics said U.S. shoppers spent 14.25 billion dollars online on Cyber Monday this year, pushing total online sales over the five days from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday to 44.2 billion dollars, an increase of 7.7 percent from 2024.
The National Retail Federation reported a record 202.9 million people shopped in stores or online over the same five-day period and said average spending per person rose to 337.86 dollars from 315.56 dollars last year, as retailers offered deep promotions on electronics, clothing, and household goods.
At the same time, the number of people using "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) services went up a lot. The Washington Post looked at Adobe data and said that these payment plans brought in 10.1 billion dollars in sales from Nov. 1 to Cyber Monday, which is 9 percent more than the previous year, and 1.03 billion dollars on Cyber Monday alone.
The paper quotes analysts as saying that the spike was due to higher prices for basic needs like groceries, housing, and electricity. These costs are making people spread out their payments and look harder for good deals. ■