The problem with Las Vegas is that everybody who is not rich has been priced out. The shows, the restaurants, the shopping – everything has become extremely expensive. An older couple at church used to go every year but they stopped. They are comfortable but not rich. Now they go to Destin instead. Destin is still too expensive by my standards but it’s not completely unaffordable for normal people.
And rich people don’t go to Las Vegas because it’s too low-class for them. They don’t travel domestically that much at all unless it’s fancy places like Aspen. People who want fancy cuisine, which was unnecessarily unleashed on Las Vegas, will go to Europe. Las Vegas lost its regular middle-class clientele and picked up none of their aspirational demographic.
I’m seeing this on a small scale in my town. We had a very popular and great-quality seafood restaurant. The owners of their building decided to raise the rent to something sky-high. The restaurant couldn’t afford to pay that much and left. And the space has been standing empty for close on a year. There’s nobody in town who can afford the sky-high rent or food at a restaurant that would have to raise prices to swing it.
Denial of reality is the costliest mistake you can make.
Clarissa's Blog 
Plus, their previously-reliable demographic, boomers, are aging out. They are not being replaced by younger cohorts because younger cohorts are comparatively poorer.
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Maybe Americans will outgrow trashy pursuits (Las Vegas, Disneyland) and start going to the Glyndebourne or Verona festivals.
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Are those cheaper?
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Just for the fun of it, I looked up the Glyndebourne festival. If you can afford to pay for your family to fly to UK, shell out 120+ pounds per ticket and pay for your accommodation, you can afford to go to Disneyland/Disneyworld and will probably have better time. If you are in the US and must go to see an Opera in the summer, I was going to suggest Santa Fe opera (complete the experience with tailgating before the actual opera), but then I looked up the ticket prices, got a little heart attack (I was there 15+ years ago and remember it being much more reasonable) and yes, I would still go to Disneyland/Disneyworld. If you abhor Disney, a trip to DC off-season is a great thing too, the Smithsonian museums and all the monuments are free and a big hit with both children and adults, in my experience. The number of different places to visit and experience in the US is one of the best things about this country. There is something for everyone at all kinds of price points (mountains, beaches, museums, amusement parks). I completely understand why a number of Americans never leave the country for vacation – why would they with so many options right here?
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Totally support the idea of visiting DC. The museums are rad. The architecture, the food. It’s a wonderful city. Especially if Trump comes through on the promise to reign in the criminality and the homelessness.
I also agree with the larger point on domestic tourism. I love traveling domestically. We’ve taken short road trips all over Missouri. Beautiful nature, wonderful people. I love knowing that we are contributing to the local economy. For nature lovers, there’s nothing better than the US. With small children, being confident in the water and that you’ll find the food they’ll eat is very important.
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National and State parks in the US are amazing. I used to visit a lot of them when I was younger. The amount of infrastructure that this country put in place to make these wonderful places accessible is amazing. There is nothing comparable to this anywhere else in world.
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Kids have done the Smithsonian thing a few times now. Would probably rather do National Air and Space and Udvar-Hazy than Disney any day of the year.
If I’m going to shell out the $$ to fly internationally, I’m not blowing it in Europe when I can visit friends, eat amazingly good food from any passing street vendor, and enjoy a very congenial exchange rate for my limited funds, in South America or Southeast Asia.
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I actually went to Las Vegas several years ago as a graduation present and I liked it, but my mother was bored since she doesn’t drink, gamble or smoke. We liked looking at the casinos, but next time I’d rather go by myself because Mom was terrified of the drinkers and gamblers
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“Las Vegas lost its regular middle-class clientele and picked up none of their aspirational demographic.”
More like we’re losing the middle class and nobody is doing anything about it.
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This aligns with my personal experience visiting Vegas over the years. Just like Boeing leadership went from engineers (you know, people who actually understood the business) to bean-counting MBAs, Vegas went through a similar transition. Vegas strip mined itself.
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Bring the mafia back. They could run Vegas better than private equity lol.
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Don’t reckon the mafia can bring back the middle class, though.
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