Las Vegas celebrated its tourism Tuesday in a party at the Fashion Show Mall.
After a banner 2016 for the industry, Oscar Goodman acted as master of ceremonies.
Goodman is the Las Vegas Host Committee's chairman and a former mayor of the city.
As part of the celebration, shoppers at the mall were treated to performances from a number of Strip shows.
In many ways, tourism is the engine that drives the shows, keeping up to dozens of people employed at each one.
"The bigger tourism gets, the better it is for everyone," said Blair Farrington, the general manager of "Baz" at Palazzo. "We just have to keep offering them exciting, unique product that they can't see anywhere else in the world and people come to Vegas for that."
The strategy has proven it works.
In 2016, a record 42.9 million visitors visited Las Vegas.
The industry supported 407,000 jobs and generated $16.9 billion in wages and salary. The tourism numbers are courtesy of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Goodman expects those numbers to climb even higher once the Raiders and Golden Knights start playing here.
"Pro sports are the greatest," Goodman said. "When I was first elected mayor I went back to New York to talk to the commissioners of the leagues and they all said no and now look what we have. We'll have baseball here soon."
