Is the Strip In Need of Revival as Las Vegas Tourism Numbers Drop in 2025?

The thing about Vegas is that, at its heart, it is a city of entertainment. This entertainment was threatened as far back as 2007, when smartphones began getting efficient enough to offer high-quality gaming, streaming, and social interaction right in people’s pockets. Suddenly, online casinos became the order of the day, with an estimated 5,000 platforms now in operation today. But even so, Las Vegas didn’t seem too badly affected.

One of its most successful years, for instance, was 2019, where the city attracted approximately 42.5 million visitors. Even following the challenges of lockdown, the city rebounded in 2022, welcoming around 38.8 million visitors, which was a 20.5% increase from the 32.2 million in 2021.

It’s hard to say that the online world of casinos has made much of a dent in the city’s core appeal. People still want a live experience – the sights and sounds of the casino floor, the energy of a packed crowd of the Sphere, the social buzz of the Vegas nightlife. But it could offer a useful clue as to what exactly is going wrong, namely through the innovation that’s on show.

Over the last decade, online casinos have been hugely innovative, constantly evolving to enhance user experience with immersive graphics, offerings, and mobile optimisation. It’s easier to achieve this in a digital space, of course. Through the rise of AI and VR, online platforms can create new, dynamic and tailored experiences every year, bringing new players in and keeping things interesting for longtime users who have been invested for a while.

In contrast, Las Vegas – especially the Las Vegas Strip – has remained largely the same. With a new facelift – or just a switch around – potentially costing billions of dollars, it’s unrealistic to expect rapid or frequent physical transformations, and the transformations themselves would only be surface level. Apart from small, functional changes, techs like VR or AI wouldn’t be enough to fully modernise the core experience of the Strip – at least, not without fundamentally rethinking how the city’s entertainment ecosystem operates.

A revival could be achieved through a bold, integrated approach that combines immersive tech with reimagined physical spaces – for instance, hybrid experiences where VR and AR offer guests new ways to interact and engage with games or shows. But would that be enough to draw people in? On another note, would it even be worth it to draw people in?

Just because the numbers are down for the beginning of 2025, of course, doesn’t mean the city is losing its magic or economic power. Las Vegas has long been the most popular entertainment city in the US, resilient and with deep-rooted appeal, so there’s every chance this is a natural fluctuation which doesn’t point to an underlying issue.

With this in mind, perhaps a slow evolution would be enough to keep the fire burning and maintain its status – gradually incorporating new technologies and experiences that complement, rather than overhaul, the traditional Vegas charm. It’s worth a shot, but even if it doesn’t work out, the Vegas everyone knows won’t be falling away into obscurity any time soon. Its legacy is too great.

Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available. Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

(Most states in which gambling is legal also have state-specific “Help” resource disclosure requirements.)