Las Vegas’ official destination marketing organization is optimistic that the resort city will see an upswing in tourism in the coming weeks, but a new TV advertising spot has received mixed reviews.
Amid widespread coverage of Vegas and its casino resorts suffering a fall in tourism this summer, the head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) is confident that the fall calendar, such as the return to play of the Las Vegas Raiders and the Canelo Álvarez vs. Terence Crawford fight, will rectify the slump.
“I’ve said a number of times that, in the summer months for us, we are very reliant on leisure tourists,” LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill said recently. “We don’t have the same business lineup, we don’t have the same sports lineup in the summer that we do the other nine months of the year. Those kinds of events drive visitation.”
Hill added at a board meeting last week that the LVCVA is looking at the best meetings and trade show calendar that Vegas has ever seen over the next nine to 16 months.
The LVCVA and Vegas casinos would likely be grateful for that, because the numbers have dropped. The city welcomed just over three million tourists in June, an 11% decline compared to June 2024 and international visitation fell by 13%, per LVCVA numbers.
New Las Vegas ad? Fabulous or not?
In an attempt to reverse that trend, the LVCVA launched a new multimillion-dollar advertising campaign aimed at enticing tourists back to the city. The “Welcome to Fabulous” marketing campaign began with a 60-second TV commercial that aired during the first game of the NFL season on Sept. 4 between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.
In conjunction with that ad, the city’s “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign and various city landmarks and resorts lit up in purple, while billboards in Times Square and on Sunset Boulevard displayed Las Vegas messaging.
Hill said the objective of the campaign is to influence travel to Las Vegas and to position it as a desirable value destination. More broadcast TV ads, activations, experiences, special offers and partnerships will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
However, LVCVA officials admitted during a board meeting this week that not all of the feedback has been positive.
“Unfortunately, we did get off to a bit of a rough start as a few local loud voices became the dominant voice,” LVCVA Chief Marketing Officer Kate Wik said during a board meeting on Sept. 9, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She noted that of 300 articles, 24 were slanted positive, 291 were neutral and five were negative. Four of the nay-sayers were local Vegas publications.
“It was disappointing that in our own backyard, we’d get these while we’re trying to rally the troops to lean in to change the narrative of the destination,” lamented Wik.
Most of the pushback on social media accused the ad of ignoring supposed extortionate pricing at local businesses. That’s also a recurring theme in the comments section of the video on YouTube.
Despite that, Wik stressed that overall favorability for the spot came in at 87%, labeling it “all positive across the board” in terms of the efforts to attract visitors from elsewhere.
LVCVA, Las Vegas mayor plead for Canadians
A large source of the declining traffic has been attributed to Canadians not traveling to Nevada. Hill said in July that visitation from Canada to Las Vegas was down roughly 15% through the first half of 2025. That trend was discussed by casino leaders such as Caesars and MGM Resorts’ respective CEOs and airline executives on public earnings calls in July and August.
Amid those remarks, and the wider context of fraught relations between Canada and President Donald Trump’s U.S., a delegation from the LVCVA traveled to Vancouver recently to discuss with Canadian tourism leaders about how to bridge the gap, from special airline and hotel packages to other incentives.
Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley also appealed to Canadians at a recent press conference.
“I’m telling everybody in Canada, please come. We love you, we need you, and we miss you.”
