By Rory Carroll
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -After a rocky debut and a softer second year, the Las Vegas Grand Prix is emerging as a stabilizing force for the city's tourism industry just as visitor demand shows signs of weakening, the head of the local tourism authority said.
"Year one was logistically very challenging," Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, told Reuters.
"The event itself was great but we were under construction basically for eight months and that was hard on people."
Logistics improved the following year as the permanent track was in place, but "demand wasn't the same," he added.
WELCOME ECONOMIC BOOST
Now in its third year, the Formula One race is taking place at a moment when Las Vegas can feel the difference between a packed calendar and an ordinary week, Hill said.
"We're going through kind of a downturn here in 2025 for a number of different reasons," he said.
"It serves to point out that you can't take for granted the impact an event like this has, and I think the community sees that."
Hill said the slowdown reflects more than just tough comparisons with record-setting years in 2023 and 2024, when Las Vegas hosted the Super Bowl and other marquee events. He pointed instead to waning consumer confidence.
"We are certainly seeing a downturn that is largely driven by consumer sentiment - concern about the economy, jobs, and affordability."
As a destination heavily dependent on discretionary spending, Las Vegas is especially vulnerable when households feel strained, he said.
CANARY IN THE COAL MINE
"We are a little bit of a canary in that we are a very discretionary destination," Hill said.
When people are worrying about housing, food and education costs, "we're one of those decisions that they can make to postpone to take care of the necessities in life."
"That is an expanded number of people right now and we're seeing the effects of that," he said.
Hill said organizers were still fine-tuning the balance between ticket prices, overall cost to visitors and operational efficiency, but the race had largely reached the level of "maturity" the city wanted when it extended the Formula One deal for two more years to 2027.
"We're trying to find the balance between what the right ticket pricing is, what the total pricing should be, as well as continue to improve the logistics," he said.
F1 officials said the glamorous Saturday night race down the famed Las Vegas Strip was drawing strong interest this year thanks to the range of ticket prices.
"This year we had repositioned ourselves around our ticketing proposition, and we're pacing really, really well for a sell-out," said Emily Prazer, the chief commercial officer at Formula One.
Hill said the mood around the city was upbeat ahead of the race.
"Ticket sales have been great, input from hotels that I've gotten has been universally positive. Everybody seems very positive about this week," he said.
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
International travel patterns have been mixed, Hill said, with a steep drop in Canadian visitors contrasting with growth from Mexico, the United Kingdom and Australia.
"Tariffs and talk about 51st states and things like that haven't been helpful from a tourism standpoint for sure," he said, noting Canadian visitation heading into November was down about 20% to 25%.
Canadians usually account for about 3.5% of total visitors, he said.
"From the rest of our international visitation, it's been kind of a mixed bag," Hill said.
"Mexico visitation has grown and visitation from the UK and Australia are up."
(Editing by Kate Mayberry)
