Three Percent Of Las Vegas Visitors Say Primary Reason To Visit Vegas In 2025 Was To Attend Sports Event, According to LVCVA Tourist Report
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Las Vegas’ tourism boosters like to talk about how sports tourism is a new frontier for the local hospitality industry, but the LVCVA’s own data showed only three percent of all visitors came here to attend a sports event in 2025 when tourism dropped 7.5 percent in Las Vegas.
The three percent or about 1.15 million visitors said their primary reason for visiting Las Vegas was to go to a sporting event in 2025, said Molly Castano, vice president of public relations and communications for the publicly-funded Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). She noted the LVCVA’s annual visitor profile report also said five percent (or 1.92 million visitors) attended a sporting event in 2025.
Take a look at the visitors profile report here.
The newsworthy element of the three percent number is that the LVCVA has hired three executives for a total salary amount of more than $400,000 in the past year to work on sports tourism, including Janis Burke as chief sports offiicer
She’s going to make between $248,600 and $347,400, with a mid-salary of $298,000.
In December the LVCVA hired a new vice president of sports development — Jennifer Hawkins, who has sports tourism experience in Pittsburgh. She was executive director of SportsPITTSBURGH from 2016-2024.
The LVCVA’s hiring of Hawkins comes after the publicly-funded tourism agency hired Will Hunter as vice president of events in October.
The report said tourist spending on sports events increased to $452.48 in 2025, about $95 more than in 2024.
The LVCVA explained its methodology:
PSA
