State of the Wedding Tourism Industry Throwback: 2024 Fun Facts About Vegas Wedding Stats

With more than 5 million weddings and counting, Las Vegas remains the undisputed Wedding Capital of the World. For over a century, a “Vegas wedding” has captured the public imagination as the ultimate stress-free, fun, glamorous and romantic wedding rooted in tourism. This applies to a spur-of-the-moment occasion or elaborately planned celebration. Weddings are offered for every budget—including elopements at iconic Las Vegas Boulevard chapels, elaborate nuptial celebrations at the Strip’s most elegant resorts and everything in between. In short, Vegas is the destination delivers dream weddings of every description. 

“Las Vegas competes with destinations known for their all-inclusive packages, ease of planning and robust commission structure for planners,” said Goya. “We already have an incomparably diverse array of venues suited for every taste and budget—no other destination comes close. We encourage Clark County wedding venues to work collaboratively to make their offers as turnkey as possible with attractive incentives for planners to ensure we remain competitive.”

Recognition of Success

Las Vegas held its annual State of Wedding Tourism event at Bootlegger’s Bistro in June 2024. Clark County Clerk Lynn Marie Goya was joined by elected officials and representatives from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and the Vegas Wedding Chamber to present an overview of industry health in the Wedding Capital of the World. Goya presented the latest global wedding industry data and results from a post-nuptials survey completed by 7,335 couples married in Clark County.

Data revealed where Clark County stands among other wedding destinations. Goya emphasized the need for the wedding industry to innovate and create partnerships to remain competitive amidst an increasingly competitive global marketplace. She also addressed the need to court California and European couples more aggressively.

In addition, Goya presented the first-ever Clark County Clerk’s Award—the Heart of Clark County—to Harry Reid International Airport Director of Aviation Rosemary Vassiliadis and her team. The award recognized her visionary support of the importance of weddings in Clark County. She invited the county clerk to bring the pop-up marriage license bureau to the airport during peak wedding dates.

Fun Facts and Tourism Stats

Last year, 74,275 couples received a marriage license in Clark County. Couples who responded to the Wedding Capital of the World’s survey rated their wedding experience an average of 4.85 out of 5 stars.

In 2023, the destination received 1,625,034 wedding visitors, generating $2.2 billion in economic activity.

International weddings in Clark County increased from 14.89% in 2022 to 16.5% in 2023.

Weddings in Clark County accounted for 3.84% of the total U.S. market share in 2022. This is based on the latest national marriage data from the CDC.

California, Texas, and Arizona are the top states where couples travel, excluding Nevada. 

The top countries, excluding the U.S., are the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and France.

On a global scale, destination weddings can increase by 13.1% over the next ten years. The market value is also poised to skyrocket from $30 billion in 2023 to $103.5 billion in 2033.*

The top reasons couples choose destination weddings include several factors. Enjoying a celebratory vacation, smaller and intimate yet lavish weddings, flawless celebrations lasting multiple days, packages to reduce stress and workload and more.*

Las Vegas’ top U.S. competitors for destination weddings include Miami, New York, Nashville, and Maui. Its top international competitors are Mexico and the Caribbean.

*Global data courtesy of Europe Destination Wedding Market Trend & Outlook 2033 | FMI (futuremarketinsights.com).