Las Vegas, Nevada, or to locals, longtime visitors and the media just “Vegas,” is a city that has experienced tremendous growth, gained worldwide exposure, and has reinvented itself on numerous occasions, all in a relatively short amount of time. Finally, concluding thoughts are presented on the transformation Las Vegas has undergone, and what it might become in the future. Reflecting upon these turning points, the external forces and their likelihood of reoccurring are used as the underlying reasoning, signposts from the past ( Robertson and Yeoman, 2014), to make predictions on potential future states ( Amer et al., 2013 Richard, 2017 Varum and Melo, 2010). These turning points help provide an understanding of the unpredictable growth of Las Vegas, one in which external forces have played a monumental role in the development of the city. Tourism researchers have examined turning points, times of decisive change, to illustrate how history can help shape the future ( Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie, 2017). Las Vegas’s transformation from local watering hole to world renowned fame can be attributed to a series of turning points in its history, with influencers ranging from geology, government, organized crime, entertainers, the economy, business visionaries and large corporations. The shining beacon of lights, towers and facades, the self-proclaimed entertainment capital of the world, was once merely a backwater layover on the way to bigger and better destinations.

With over 42m visitors a year, Las Vegas is one of the most popular destinations in the USA ( LVCVA, 2018). In the music video Bruno Mars is living the dream that many imagine when they think of Las Vegas, or as it unofficially also known as, “Sin City” where “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” It is a dream of unbridled opulence and excess, an invitation to a never-ending party, a luxurious experience for those consumers with increased wealth ( Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie, 2018). In his music video, “24K Magic,” Popstar Bruno Mars arrives in Las Vegas via private jet, stays in luxurious resorts, parties in nightclubs, gambles in opulence and even rides a jet ski across the Bellagio fountains, all while surrounded by beautiful women. The full terms of this licence may be seen at Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence.

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