Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The average rate of a three-night stay in Las Vegas for the Formula One race weekend is $1,372, according to Vegas Insider, a website that provides gambling odds and trends.
Last year, it was $2,314.
Airbnb said its prices also have seen a significant reduction, from $1,946 for an average three-night stay last year to $533 this year.
Additionally, race tickets are 76% cheaper than last year’s inaugural race, according to the site. A standard admission ticket for today’s practice runs for the South Koval Zone starts at $99.
Las Vegas Grand Prix racing runs will take place daily through Saturday, taking over parts of the Strip and nearby roads and transforming them for a few hours each night into a 3.8-mile, 17-turn track that international F1 drivers will race down at speeds sometimes nearing 200 mph.
“People are attracted by experience, and we know that last year, the F1 was promoted as this very engaging experience, unique experience (that) was as big as the brand. … Everyone was very curious (and) there was this energy around it,” said Marta Soligo, an assistant professor at UNLV and director of tourism research at the UNLV Office of Economic Development.
Lori Nelson-Kraft, senior vice president for corporate affairs at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, told the Sun that race officials “have seen great fan interest” in this year’s event. She said the race is expected to draw 100,000 fans nightly and surpass 300,000 in total attendance over three days. Last year, race officials said total attendance was 315,000 — many attendees in that total were ticketed to attended all three days.
“We’ll be able to give more of a snapshot on that post-event, but the buzz is building, we see a lot of excitement,” Nelson-Kraft said of the expected ticket demand. “The scale and scope and complexity of our different fan zones and activations and the live entertainment that’s fused together with the thrill of that one is really just creating a lot of excitement for our guests, and that’s what we’re seeing, and that’s what we’re hearing.”
A report assembled last year by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority showed that the Grand Prix “generated six times more publicity during race week than it did all year long.”
Some of the lower prices are an attempt by race officials to make the event affordable for locals, some of whom expressed displeasure in being priced out of the inaugural event. Officials responded this year by adding two additional viewing zones.
The Flamingo Zone for general admission and three-day Caesars Palace Experience were added specifically to attract more local attendees, they say.
Locals also were upset with traffic delays caused by repaving roads and updating lighting on the Strip as part of the course layout prior to the 2023 event.
While Soligo, a sociologist who studies tourism, said community concerns for the first year of an event were normal, she believes these issues created a bad “label” for the race in the minds of Southern Nevadans that won’t be easy to change.
But the Grand Prix is trying to reverse its image.
The race league responded through community outreach, such as hosting a free, two-day Las Vegas Grand Prix Fan Experience and setting up an alert system to notify residents when roads would be closed for racecourse work. Those closures, because repaving was already done, weren’t as disruptive this time around.
Soligo said Las Vegas’ diversifying tourism economy is laying “fertile soil for sports tourism,” and the F1 event may be able to clean its image up by taking a page from other large-scale events or sports teams.
For example, some experts Soligo has interviewed lauded February’s Super Bowl for promoting local businesses and getting involved in the community through local tree-planting efforts and donations, among other actions.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix followed the Super Bowl’s lead and created a local business directory to be distributed to race teams and visitors.
Soligo said being more transparent and communicative with locals, as well as getting involved with the community and minimizing daily life impacts, might secure more local interest.
“There is a label, what we call memory, or in sociology collective memory, the memory of Las Vegas, when you mention F1, I think that it feels several times associated with traffic; is associated with ‘I’m not part of it for a series of reasons,’ (and) last year, the communication wasn’t great, and unfortunately, you pay the consequences of that,” Soligo said. “From my research, when I spoke with people, all they want is no disruption to their everyday life, so already they will have a nicer attitude if there is no traffic. …. Start with everyday life disruption and being transparent, recognize the issues, help the community, show that you’re really interested in the communities (and) not only like you’re doing that for branding or for money.”
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