Valley’s visitor growth slows in October

Friday, Dec. 22, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.

Las Vegas eked out a 0.7 percent increase in visitor volume in October, as occupancy rates dipped for the month.

The city hosted 3.14 million visitors in the month of October, an increase of just 21,000 from October 1999. That's well off the 6.3 percent growth rate posted by the city for all of 2000.

For the 10 months ending Oct. 31, the city had hosted 30.2 million visitors.

The meager growth wasn't enough to keep occupancy levels up -- the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported that the city's total occupancy rate for the month was 91.7 percent, down from 92.2 percent. The Las Vegas room inventory increased 2.4 percent since October 1999, and was at 123,319 in October 2000.

Still, a number of key indicators showed growth in October. Convention attendance rose 7.8 percent to 304,470, while total room nights occupied increased 1.9 percent to 3.5 million. Gross gaming revenue increased 3.9 percent to $653 million in Clark County, and rose 2.7 percent to $401 million on the Strip.

Total enplaned and deplaned passengers at McCarran International Airport rose 6.9 percent to 3.33 million, while automobile traffic between Los Angeles and Las Vegas rose 1.4 percent to 464,000.

Laughlin and Mesquite both posted visitor downturns for October. In Laughlin, visitor counts fell 0.6 percent to 381,000, while gross gaming revenue dipped 3.4 percent to $45.6 million. In Mesquite, visitor volume fell 15.8 percent to 133,000, while gross gaming revenue rose 0.5 percent to $8.6 million.