LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nearly four years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers released Thursday show that Las Vegas had a big international visitor bounce back year in 2023.
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Southern Nevada welcomed just over 4.7 million international visitors last year, a 39% increase from 2022.
Las Vegas has struggled in recent years to return international visitation to pre-pandemic levels.
While over 5.6 million visitors from other countries flocked to the city in 2019, the events of 2020 led to a big decrease.
For all of 2020, only 1.3 million international visitors were counted as consumers shied away from air travel and vacations in general because of shutdowns and worry about the spread of the virus.
Though the 2023 figure is still about 16% lower than what Las Vegas attracted in 2019, it's still a big step back to normalcy.
Canada, as is usually the case, sent the most international tourists to Las Vegas as it was responsible for over 1.4 million people. Next was Mexico, which sent nearly 1.1 million visitors, following by the United Kingdom (551,000), Australia (265,000) and Germany (182,400).
The biggest jump, however, came from China. In 2022, only about 11,000 traveled from China to Las Vegas for a visit, though that number ballooned to nearly 72,000 last year, an increase of 573%.
All total, just under 41 million people visited Las Vegas in 2023, representing a 5% increase from 2022.
