LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nearly half of Nevadans think Las Vegas has become too expensive to visit, and blame that fact for the recent drop in tourism, a new poll shows.
The poll, by Phoenix-based Noble Predictive Insights, found 46% of Nevadans from all over the state believe the city has become too expensive.
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That's a common sentiment online, where visitors and locals alike share stories of pricy Strip resorts, expensive drinks and high-cost food. Others have said the city is changing, but that deals can still be found.
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That focus shows Nevada residents are focused on their pocketbooks, says Mike Noble, founder and CEO of Noble Predictive Insights.
"So, there's a lot of indicators, and I would say that people's opinions are a leading indicator compared to economic data, which is a lagging indicator," Noble said. "And because people have a good sense of their surroundings, like, as humans, we pick up our environments pretty well, and that's why the consumer confidence index is one of the key economic indicators folks look at."
Another 12% told pollsters that Las Vegas had simply become less appealing than it used to be, and 11% specifically cited resort fees or other hidden fees as reason for the tourism drop.
The poll was conducted Oct. 7-13 and interviewed 766 people. It has a margin of error of 3.54 percentage points.
On Thursday, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Steve Hill told a breakfast meeting of industrial and office developers that things had begun to look up.
"There's no place like Vegas on earth. People want to be here," Hill said. "It's a little harder for them, for some of them, to be here now than it has been in the past. We've seen a slowdown over the summer. We've started to see a little bit of an uptick as we got to August. I've seen some preliminary numbers from September. September's probably going to be a little better than August."
But Noble said the poll's numbers cast a different light on rosy projections about the city.
"I would disagree with what that one person's opinion is," Noble said. "But when you look at Nevadans, I mean, again, what are they thinking, feeling, that's unequivocally it. And anyone has a crystal ball to know exactly where we're going to be at a year or so from now, but we know what's kind of some of the current policies that are going on."
Another 14% in the poll blamed the drop on tourism on political rhetoric and federal policies, including those on immigration enforcement and trade, for the drop in tourism. That may be a factor in a decrease in Canadian tourism especially, after President Donald Trump repeatedly mused about Canada becoming the 51st state.
Notably, some commonly expressed tourism deterrents didn't rate very highly in the poll. Only 3% of Nevadans said airline fares and travel costs were to blame for the drop in tourism. Another 3% said increased competition from other tourism destinations was at fault. And 2% said extreme heat and poor weather was the cause. And 4% said they were not sure why fewer people were coming to Las Vegas.
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