Similar to Hawaii, Las Vegas is a major tourist destination. The robust economy of Las Vegas has its source in the over 30 million visitors a year. The principal attractions are entertainment, gambling, climate, proximity to national parks, gorgeous hotels, 24 hour atmosphere, cheap lodging and food, major sporting events, and hundreds of other diversions. Tourism started slowly in Las Vegas with the legalization of gambling in the 1930's. Since then, the industry has gone through several evolutions. From Mob ties in the early days to the Howard Hughes era, the industry has constantly renewed itself. Currently, Las Vegas is in the 'mega-resort' phase of its development. Huge, billion dollar resort complexes are now the norm. Each of these meg-resorts are so impressive as to become destinations in themselves. The one thing that has not changed about the resorts in Las Vegas is that they still like to base themselves around some kind a appealing theme.
Source:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Las-Vegas-Nevada.html
