Las Vegas ranks among most expensive places in the US to visit: study

Forbes Advisor analyzed travel costs to top U.S. destinations and found Las Vegas led for the most substantial rise in travel costs within the last five years. The destination saw a 47 percent increase in hotel accommodations prices, a 61 percent increase in car rentals, and a 14 percent increase in daily meal costs. On average, a hotel room in the last quarter of 2023 was $252, rental car rates were roughly $77 and three meals per day reached about $98.

Rounding out the destinations with the biggest jumps in travel costs were Tucson, Arizona; Sacramento, California; New Orleans and San Antonio, Texas.

Forbes Advisor used data from the Business Travel News Corporate Travel Index, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and AAA to score the 75 largest cities on nine weighted metrics. While five-year changes in meal, hotel and car rental prices were weighed most, other measures included domestic airfare, gasoline prices and different costs for specific tiers.

“One silver lining for travelers is that the average cost of airfare to or from Las Vegas has dropped slightly (-5.5 percent), which can offset a few of the costs of travel to the city,” Forbes Advisor Writer Becky Pokora said in an email. “Locals can take advantage of the same lower airfares when leaving Las Vegas to vacation elsewhere.”

The study comes at a time when travelers and businesses are noticing the impact of inflation. Major casino companies in Las Vegas have lauded the rising average daily room rates for bringing in increasing revenue. But as lower-value travelers respond to higher prices, some industry watchers say there could be a slowdown or other impact to the market as some customers respond to high prices by decreasing their wallet share when in Vegas.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com.