What is the significance of the if statement in this code?

I am currently learning JavaScript through some tutorials and this example came out in the tutorial. I'm just confused why must the if statement be there. I tried erasing the if statement and it still worked. Can someone help me please.

var timesVisited=0;
var dateVisited = 'Never';

if(localStorage.myLastVisit){
    var visit = JSON.parse(localStorage.myLastVisit);
    timesVisited = visit.numVisits;
    dateVisited = visit.dateVisits;
}

$("#dateVisit").html(dateVisited);

timesVisited++;
$("#numVisit").html(timesVisited);


var myVisits = {};
myVisits.numVisits = timesVisited;
var d = new Date();
var hours = d.getHours();
var minutes = d.getMinutes();
myVisits.dateVisits = hours + ':' + minutes;
localStorage.myLastVisit = JSON.stringify(myVisits)