Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Hotel scene in Nevada
Hotel-generated state and local tax revenue is expected to reach more than $45 billion nationally in 2023, with Nevada ranking among states projecting the highest gross increase since before the pandemic, according to a report this week from American Hotel and Lodging Association.
State-by-state projections show state and local tax revenue generated by U.S. hotels reaching “new heights” of $46.71 billion in 2023 — a nearly 14% increase from the pre-COVID-19 levels of 2019, the association said.
Nevada is projected to produce $3.01 billion in hotel tax revenue in 2023, which is a more than 12% — or $330 million — increase from 2019. It trails behind Florida, California and Texas for the expected highest gross increase.
“Hotels are making significant strides toward recovery, supporting millions of good-paying jobs and generating billions in state and local tax revenue in communities across the nation,” Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, said in a statement.
The projections come nearly a month after the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said 38.8 million people visited in 2022 — an increase from the previous two years that falls just shy of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, which saw 42 million visitors. Officials anticipate record visitation in 2023.
“What a year,” Lori Nelson-Kraft, the LVCVA’s senior vice president of communications, said at the time. “Vegas hit on all cylinders offering incredible experiences and events that attracted strong visitation. Additionally, the meetings and convention calendar and the ability to welcome international visitors back helped to fuel an impressive increase to our visitation over last year.”
The hotel association said in its release Tuesday that average hotel occupancy in the U.S. was projected to reach just over 63% in 2023 — nearly matching pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
Hawaii, California and Alaska are expected to take the lead among the top states for hotel occupancy this year, with Alaska alone seeing an increase in its numbers compared with before the pandemic.
Staffing will remain a challenge for the industry, the association emphasized, despite historically high wages, benefits and flexibility.
A nationwide hiring spree is underway for hotels as they recover from COVID-19 job losses, the association said, pointing to Indeed numbers that show nearly 100,000 jobs are currently open in the industry. By the end of 2022, hotel wages in the U.S. averaged over $23 an hour, the association said.
Projections show that every direct hotel job supports an additional 2.6 jobs in the community, the hotel association said.
Nevada ranked third among states expected to have the highest direct hotel employment levels in 2023 at 164,501 — which is still 14.4% less than in 2019.
Projected hotel-supported employment in Nevada, over 336,000, decreased from 2019 and ranked fifth in the country.
“To continue growing, we need to hire more people,” Rogers said in a statement. “Fortunately, there’s never been a better time to be a hotel employee, with wages, benefits, flexibility and upward mobility better than ever before.”
