The driving economic force in Las Vegas is the
tourism industry. The area has about 150,000 hotel rooms, more than any other city in the world. In the past, casinos and celebrity shows were the two major attractions for the area. Now
shopping,
conventions,
fine dining, and outdoor beauty are also major forces in attracting tourist dollars. Las Vegas serves as world headquarters for the world's largest
Fortune 500 gaming company,
MGM Resorts International. Several companies involved in the manufacture of electronic gaming machines, such as
slot machines, are located in the Las Vegas area. In the first decade of the 21st century, shopping and dining have become attractions of their own. Tourism marketing and promotion are handled by the
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, a county-wide agency. Its annual Visitors Survey provides detailed information on visitor numbers, spending patterns, and resulting revenues. looking south at night hotel. A major part of the city economy is based on tourism including gambling and ultra-luxury hotels. While Las Vegas has historically attracted high-stake gamblers from around the world, it is now facing tougher competition from the UK, Hong Kong and Macau (China), Eastern Europe and developing areas in the Middle East. Las Vegas has recently enjoyed a boom in population and tourism. The urban area has grown outward so quickly that it borders
Bureau of Land Management holdings along its edges. This has led to an increase in land values such that medium- and high-density development is occurring closer to the core. The
Chinatown of Las Vegas was constructed in the early 1990s on Spring Mountain Road. Chinatown initially consisted of only one large shopping center complex, but the area was expanded with shopping centers that contain various Asian businesses. Over the past few years, retirees have been moving to the metro area, driving businesses that support them from housing to health care. While the cost of housing spiked up over 40% in 2004, the lack of
business and
income taxes still makes Nevada an attractive place for many companies to relocate to or expand existing operations. Being a true twenty-four-hour city,
call centers have always seemed to find Las Vegas a good place to hire workers who are accustomed to working at all hours. The
construction industry accounts for a share of the economy in Las Vegas. Hotel casinos planned for the Strip can take years to build and employ thousands of workers. Developers discovered that there was demand for
high-end condominiums. By 2005,
more than 100 condominium buildings were in various stages of development, however, in 2008, the construction industry went into a downturn due to the
Great Recession, though the industry has since seen a rebound. In 2000, more than 21,000 new homes and 26,000 resale homes were purchased. In early 2005, there were 20 residential development projects of more than each underway. During that same period, Las Vegas was regarded as the fastest-growing community in the
United States. Other promising residential and office developments have begun construction around
Downtown Las Vegas. New condominium and high-rise hotel projects have changed the Las Vegas skyline dramatically in recent years. Many large high-rise projects are planned for Downtown Las Vegas, as well as the Las Vegas Strip.
Construction Construction in Las Vegas is a major industry and quickly growing with the population. In March 2011, construction employed 40,700 people and is expected to grow with the recovering economy. Since the mega resorts that define Las Vegas today began going up in the early 1970s, construction has played a vital role in both commercial and non commercial developments. At any given time there are 300 new homes being constructed in Las Vegas. New suburban master planned communities are also becoming common in Las Vegas ever since
The Howard Hughes Corporation began work on Summerlin, an upper-class community on the west side of the valley. The massive
CityCenter project, by
MGM Mirage, broke ground on the Strip in 2006. It put a massive strain on the construction ability and workforce of the area due to number of laborers and amount of materials required. Because of this, prices of almost any construction project in Las Vegas doubled. The project was completed in 2009 and includes multiple hotels and condominiums, as well as shopping and a casino. At a cost of $8.5 billion, it is the most expensive privately funded construction project in U.S. history. The Tropicana Hotel, opened in 1957, was demolished in October 2024 in order to create a new baseball stadium.
Bally's Corporation, the owner of the hotel, indicated that upon completion of the stadium it would further develop the site.
Housing Traditionally, housing consisted primarily of
single-family detached homes.
Slab-on-grade foundations are the common base for residential buildings in the valley.
Apartments generally were two-story buildings. Until the 1990s, there were exceptions, but they were few and far between. In the 1990s,
Turnberry Associates constructed the first high rise condominium towers. Prior to this, there were only a handful of mid-rise multi-family buildings. By the mid-2000s, there was a major move into high rise condominiums towers, which affected the region's
skyline around the Strip. The Las Vegas Valley is home to various suburban
master planned communities that include extensive recreational amenities such as lakes, golf courses, parks, bike paths and jogging trails. Planned communities in the valley include
Aliante,
Anthem, Cadence, Centennial Hills,
Green Valley, Inspirada,
Lake Las Vegas,
The Lakes,
Mountain's Edge, Peccole Ranch, Providence,
Rhodes Ranch,
Seven Hills, Skye Canyon,
Southern Highlands, and
Summerlin.
Technology companies Some technology companies have either relocated to Las Vegas or were created there. For various reasons, Las Vegas has had a high concentration of technology companies in electronic gaming and telecommunications industries. Some current technology companies in southern Nevada include:
Bigelow Aerospace,
Petroglyph,
Switch Communications, US Support LLC, Fanatics, and
Zappos. In 2015,
Electric vehicle startup
Faraday Future has chosen North Las Vegas's Apex Industrial Park for its $1 billion car factory. Companies that originally were formed in the Las Vegas region, but have since sold or relocated include
Westwood Studios (sold to
Electronic Arts),
Systems Research & Development (Sold to
IBM),
Yellowpages.com (Sold to
BellSouth and
SBC), and MPower Communications.
Tourism The major attractions in the Las Vegas Valley are the hotel/casinos. These hotels generally consist of large gambling areas, theaters for live performances, shopping, bars/clubs, and several restaurants and cafes. According to the city government, about 41.7 million people visit Las Vegas annually. There are clusters of large hotel/casinos located in both
downtown Las Vegas and on the
Las Vegas Strip. The largest hotels are mainly located on the Strip, which is a four-mile section of Las Vegas Boulevard. These hotels provide thousands of rooms of various sizes. Fifteen of the world's 30 largest hotels by room count are on the Strip, with a total of over 62,000 rooms. There are many hotel/casinos in the city's downtown area as well, which was the original focal point of the Valley's gaming industry. Several hotel/casinos ranging from large to small are also located around the city and metro area. Many of the largest hotel, casino, and resort properties in the world are located on the Las Vegas Strip. The valley's casinos can be grouped into several locations. The largest is the Las Vegas Strip, followed by Downtown Las Vegas, and then the smaller
Boulder Strip. There are also several one-off single standing hotel/casinos dotted around the valley and the metro area. In 2011, the majority of tourists arrived from the western states (55%) with 31% from California alone. Approximately 16% of tourists arrived from outside North America.
Shopping and
Giorgio Armani boutiques at Via Bellagio Las Vegas has expanded its attractiveness to visitors by offering both affordable and high-end merchandise in many shops and shopping malls. Many hotels on the Las Vegas Strip also have adjacent shopping malls, giving the Las Vegas area the highest concentration of shopping malls in any four mile stretch of road. In addition to the malls on the Strip, there are several outlying malls in the City of Las Vegas, Henderson, and the surrounding area. The
monorail, lying somewhat east of the Strip, facilitates north–south travel, including stations at several casinos and the
Las Vegas Convention Center. Major shopping attractions include: •
Bonanza Gift Shop •
The Boulevard Mall • Broadacres Marketplace •
The Shops at Crystals •
Downtown Summerlin •
Galleria at Sunset •
Grand Canal Shoppes • Fantastic Indoor Swap Meet •
Fashion Show Mall •
The Forum Shops at Caesars •
Las Vegas Premium Outlets •
Meadows Mall •
Miracle Mile Shops •
Stratosphere Tower Shops •
Tivoli Village •
Town Square Conventions Las Vegas holds many of the world's largest conventions each year, including
CES,
SEMA, and
Conexpo. The
Las Vegas Convention Center is one of the largest in the world with 1,940,631 sq ft (180,290.5 m2) of exhibit space. These events bring in an estimated $7.4 billion of revenue to the city each year, and host over 5 million attendees. File:Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood.jpg|
Las Vegas Boulevard facing south and
Planet Hollywood Las Vegas File:Fremont East District Neon - panoramio.jpg|
Fremont East File:Bellagio caesar's palace 2010.JPG|The
Bellagio (left) and
Caesars Palace (right) File:MacDonaldHighlands1.jpg|
MacDonald Highlands, one of many affluent neighborhoods in the valley File:Project CityCenter in Las Vegas.jpg|
CityCenter complex File:The Wynn (9638502887).jpg|
Wynn Las Vegas File:Fashionshowmall.jpg|The
Fashion Show Mall File:Fountains and Rainbow @ Bellagio, Las Vegas (2597936256).jpg|
Fountains of Bellagio File:Crystals Retail and Entertainment, City Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (8477909548).jpg|
Crystals at CityCenter File:Downtown, Las Vegas, NV, USA - panoramio (6).jpg|
High Roller File:Caesars Palace, Las Vegas (5527011351).jpg|
The Forum Shops at Caesars File:Red Rock Canyon NCA (25112604635).jpg|
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area File:Arts District, Las Vegas, United States (Unsplash).jpg|
Las Vegas Arts District File:One Magic Mountain (Unsplash).jpg|
Seven Magic Mountains ==Culture and the arts==