Is Vegas back? Struggling Sin City surges in US travel survey

Vegas, maybe!A year after a widely reported decline in tourism, Las Vegas is showing signs of a rebound.According to new data released by travel provider Priceline, Sin City topped a list of most searched destinations, year-over-year, for this month.

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By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Never miss a story The desert oasis surged ahead of perennially popular Orlando and New York.

Another Western destination that’s gotten its share of bad press lately, Seattle, snagged the No.5 spot.

And even plummeting Portland got in on the good West Coast news — the struggling city is currently one of the top five for hotel values, nationwide.Vegas’ apparent surge follows a flurry of bleak reports regarding the declining number of visitors to the gaming Gomorrah.

In July of last year, the casino capital saw a 12% drop from in visitors from the previous year — according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.This July, numbers were creeping back up —  2.7% year-over-year.Hotel performance also improved year-over-year, the agency said, with occupancy reaching 77.2%, up 1.1 percentage points.Convention attendance, however, fell 5.6% from year.One very good falling number: The cost of leisure and hospitality in a destination widely decried for its soaring prices.

Those numbers were down 1.1% year-over-year in July of 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.In 2025, LVCVA’s chief executive Steve Hill hit back against complaints from tourists about the city’s high prices for food and hotels.“The idea that generally Las Vegas is not a value, that it is overpriced, I don’t think our customers are doing math when they are concerned about a specific issue,” Hill said.“They’re expressing concern about that specific topic, that tends to then move into a narr...