Nevada is projected to pay some of the highest hotel compensation and hotel-generated tax revenue in 2024, according to a new industry report.
Hotels in the state are expected to generate about $8.1 billion in taxes – or $3.7 billion in federal taxes and $4.4 billion in state and local taxes, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association’s state-by-state comparison of economic impact released on April 8th. That is the third-largest total, behind California and New York, reports Las Vegas Review Journal.
The report, which includes data from Oxford Economics, shows the state’s industry is also expected to pay out the second-highest total of wages, salaries, and compensation this year, at $14.4 billion. The projected nationwide total is 4.6 percent higher than 2023’s total of $118 billion and more than 20 percent higher since 2019.
Review-Journal also cited the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which in a statement noted that the report’s conclusions do not reveal the obstacles to the industry’s growth.
“Historic projections for wage and tax revenue totals point to a strong 2024 for hoteliers,” said Kevin Carey, AHLA’s interim president and CEO. “But our industry is facing significant obstacles to growth. These include the ongoing nationwide labor shortage, stubborn inflation, and a federal regulatory agenda that threatens future economic expansion.”
AHLA noted that 2023 was a comeback year for hoteliers and higher occupancy rates expected in 2024 are part of the industry’s path to growth. However, worker shortages exist amid nationwide higher wages. The association further underscored that Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that national average hotel wages were $23.84 hourly in February, but there are 1.36 vacancies for every unemployed person.
According to the AHLA report, there are still 10.6 percent fewer hotel workers in Nevada than there were in 2019. It is considerably worse in the Las Vegas Valley, where unadjusted BLS data show that there were around 15% fewer workers in February than in the same month in 2019.