Las Vegas Visitors
File under: Context matters.
Surprise and dismay might be expected to follow a quick glance at the topline year-over-year March stats for Las Vegas visitor volume, convention attendance, hotel occupancy, and average price per room — if one did not bother to read the explanatory notes by the team at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA):
As of March 2025
The substantial effect of the Superbowl, convention cycles (some companies rotate their annual conventions between major cities), and two big expos being held in January or February rather than March prompted us to check March 2024 numbers.
Visitors were up 4.2 percent over March 2023, but:
- Convention attendance was down 37.2 percent (with a note that the month lacked a once-every-three-years money-maker: the once- CONEXPO‐CON/AGG tradeshow, which brought 142,000 conventioneers in 2022).
- Hotel RevPAR (revenue per available room) was down 19.2 percent.
- Average daily room prices were down 16.4 percent.
The back-to-back March slumps prompted us check 2024 vs. 2023 annual stats.
Hotel Occupancy
- 2024: 83.6 percent
- 2023: 83.5 percent
Average Daily Rate (ADR):
- 2024: $193.16
- 2023: $191
Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR):
- 2024: $161, a 1.1 percent increase from 2023.
- 2023: $160
LVCVA noted that hotel room inventory decreased by 2.6 percent in 2024 due to the implosion of the Tropicana and the temporary closure of The Mirage.
Finally, here’s the breakdown of where visitors hailed from in 2024:
Seasonal Swings
Seasonal sales swings in home sales have been increasing — without a surge in distressed sales.
The below Calculated Risk graph shows the month-to-month change in the NSA Case-Shiller National index since 1987 (through January 2025). The seasonal pattern was smaller back in the ’90s and early ’00s and increased once the bubble burst.
The seasonal swings declined following the bust, however the pandemic price surge changed the month-over-month pattern:
As of January 2024
The graph below shows the seasonal factors for the Case-Shiller National index since 1987. The factors started to change near the peak of the bubble, and really increased during the bust since normal sales followed the regular seasonal pattern – and distressed sales happened all year.
The swings in the seasonal factors were decreasing following the bust but have increased again recently – this time without a surge in distressed sales.
As of January 2024
Cars
The U.S. last year imported roughly half the vehicles sold so Trump’s surtax on autos — and major auto parts — have economists and industry analysts weighing the implications.
Bloomberg Economics, using a Fed frame of analysis, estimated a GDP hit of 0.2 percent and an increase in core price levels by 0.1 percent.
Illuminating bar graph:
As of 2024
Taking Stock
Foreign investors held $18.45 trillion in U.S. corporate stocks as of the end of 2024. This Visual Capitalist graph provides an at-a-glance breakdown of which global regions own the most:
I Want to Ride My Bicycle
With a population of 18.3 million, the Netherlands is the 69th-most-populous country in the world. Yet with 23.9 million bicycles in the country, Holland contains quite a few more bikes than people. It’s widely considered the most bicycle-friendly country on Earth, as 43% of the population rides at least once per day. Amsterdam in particular has been deemed the bike capital of the world, with one expert estimating that more than 60% of all trips in the city center take place on two wheels. So says a student blog at a Netherlands university
As of 2025
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