By james art Anyone who has walked through a packed casino parking lot in August knows how busy the peak of the special event season is in Northern Nevada.
Crowded casino parking lots may be a pain for locals looking for convenient parking spots to enjoy their prize buffets, but they’re a boon to the regional economy — and what a boon it was.
Reno Tahoe’s transient lodging and room tax revenue hit an all-time high last August, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority said. In fact, four of the five top-grossing months in Northern Nevada have occurred in the past 15 months, a clear signal that tourism is alive and well in the Truckee Meadows despite high inflation and high prices for fuel, food and entertainment.
Reno Tahoe Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Mike Larragetta said the increase in visitation to Washoe County is the result of multiple entities all working toward a common goal.
“There are so many positive things happening in our region and that resonates in visitation,” Larragetta said. “It is a combination of the efforts of multiple entities to put Renault Tahoe on the map. It is the full effort of so many organizations to increase our visitation numbers.”
Taxable room revenue in August was a record $55.8 billion, the RSCVA reports. Additional banner months include:
• September 2023, $54,934,713
• July 2021, $53,830,709
• August 2023, $53,576,718
• June 2023, $53,454,177
It’s the same story at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, which recorded its busiest summer in nearly two decades in 2024. RNO saw a 10 percent year-over-year increase in passenger traffic for the summer months — June had a 12 percent year-over-year increase, followed by August by 9 percent and July by 8 percent, the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority said.
Reno-Tahoe International Airport is on track to serve 4.8 million passengers in 2024, up from 4.6 million passengers in 2023, said Tina Iftiger, Reno-Tahoe Airport’s chief air service development officer.
“Our region’s booming tourism market and growth in business travel played a significant role in the 10 percent increase in passengers we saw this past summer, which is also a key factor in our projected annual total of 4.8 million passengers,” Iftiger said. These numbers reflect not only the growing interest in Northern Nevada as a premier tourism destination, but also the contribution it makes to our regional economy as more visitors come to explore the unique experiences our area has to offer and more and more diverse businesses enter our market, we we see healthy earnings that promise continued momentum going forward.”
Tourism will always be a cornerstone of the regional economy. Increases in taxable room revenue are important to the RSCVA, Larragueta noted, because they lead to a direct increase in the organization’s operating budget. The RSCVA retains 6.625 percent of taxable room revenue to fund operations, sales and marketing, promotions and facility improvements when its coffers are full.
“We are 100 percent funded by the room tax,” Larragetta said. “Occupancy and ADR (Average Daily Rate) determine our budget each year.
“We entered this fiscal year with about a 5 percent deficit because there are a lot of things — fear of a recession, the presidential election and war in the Middle East — that contributed to this decision,” Larragetta added. “But when we’re healthy, we’re required to put 10 percent of our budget back into facilities each year, and let’s face it, some of our facilities need a little love.”
The Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority owns and operates the 600,000-square-foot Reno-Sparks Convention Center and operates the Reno Events Center and National Bowling Stadium, which are owned by the City of Reno, as well as the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center, which is owned by the state, but the bonds on the facility are with the county, Laraghetta said.
The RSCVA analyzes room tax revenue in August to see why the month was better. Room nights booked by free independent travelers (FIT in industry terms) through third-party booking sites such as Expedia, Kayak, Priceline and the like were up 19.5 percent over the previous year, Larragueta said.
This increase is important for hotel-casinos, he added, because it allows them to book a large volume of rooms in a short period of time.
“The booking window for this (FIT) segment is relatively short, say two weeks or less,” Larragetta said. “Hotels are forecasting 30 to 60 days in advance and potentially anticipating a drop in occupancy, so they turn on the faucet.
“They’re doing additional marketing and getting a little more aggressive with their rate structure and pricing,” Larragetta added. “You can move a lot of rooms in a short amount of time when you turn on the Expedia faucet.”
Computer rooms were another area that saw significant year-over-year growth in August of 18.6 percent. Combined, the two sectors accounted for nearly 40 percent of the increase in visits to Reno Tahoe for the month.
The convention business is another important leg of the tourism stool. Larragueta said that in fiscal year 2024, lead groups — opportunities for the RSCVA to bid on new conventions — exceeded the 2019 total, which is the benchmark year for regional convention business because of its strong numbers.
“We have a lot of demand and room nights from those potential customers have also increased significantly,” Larragetta said. “Hotels are extremely aggressive and we will see the results of that in 2026 and ’27.”
“Congress business is so important because it creates a foundation and it also creates compression,” he added. “Once you have a bed base on the books, it provides an opportunity to increase the price of the (remaining) rooms and market to a better demographic, someone who has more discretionary income to spend. It’s a puzzle that works very well when you have that (conventional) base established.”
Christopher Abraham, chief marketing officer of the 2,000-room Grand Sierra Resort, said occupancy at the region’s largest casino-hotel has remained relatively steady year over year as convention business has begun to return in strength to GSR.
“We’re starting to see group business come back,” Abraham said. “The booking period is 16 to 24 months for this business. After we got through COVID, it was a little slow, but the recovery of this business really bodes well for the whole region.”
Strong occupancy during special event season — and especially during midweek conventions — raises the bar for all resort properties, Abraham added.
“Midweek is more of a challenge to fill with tourists and gamers, so having that midweek group base is really key for the whole market,” he said. “Bringing this business back is extremely important to the market and employment levels in general.”
“Reno Tahoe is a great convention market,” added Abraham. “It’s easy to get to in the non-winter months and we see this segment continuing its steady growth over the next few years.”
It’s common to see Grand Sierra Resort’s expansive parking areas completely full on hot August nights and to decompress after the exodus from Black Rock City after Burning Man concludes, as well as during concerts—the property will host nearly 100 concerts this year at the Grand Theatre, Abraham said.
Alternative metal band Godsmack recently played to a sold-out crowd of 2,700, and many concertgoers booked rooms for the night, Abraham said.
“These shows increase employment,” he said. “People want to stay with us and come over the mountain to see the show and stay the weekend. We are building employment on all fronts: organic events like our Beer and Chili Festival, entertainment, group business travel and leisure travel.”