Visitors trek to Vegas for Fourth of July holiday

David Strow

Friday, June 30, 2000 | 10:54 a.m.

Observers expect Las Vegas to enjoy a strong holiday weekend this year, despite escalating gasoline prices.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority projects that 258,000 visitors will come to Las Vegas this weekend, a 5.7 percent increase over last year's July 4 weekend count.

Far more substantial, however, is the economic impact those visitors are expected to have. The LVCVA projects non-gaming economic impact will hit $191.6 million this weekend, a 42 percent leap over last year.

"The significant increase is due to the fact we're treating it as a four-day weekend this year," said Kevin Bagger, senior research analyst for the LVCVA. "We think a substantial number of visitors will take Monday off and stay longer here."

The higher visitor count projection, Bagger said, is the result of the strength of the city's tourism market over the first half of 2000.

"The market as a whole has been very strong, and additional resorts are open that weren't open last year," Bagger said.

As in the past, many of those visitors will come from California -- and officials in that state expect Californians' appetite for travel to be strong this Fourth.

The California State Automobile Association says it expects 4.7 million Californians to travel at least 100 miles from home this year, up 3 percent from 1999.

Among Southern Californians, Las Vegas ranked No. 3 as a planned destination, trailing national parks and Mexico. Northern Californians also listed Las Vegas as a top destination, though the northern California selections were not ranked.

"Higher gas prices are not deterring people from taking a vacation because the economy remains strong," said Paul Moreno, spokesman for the association. "There's a lot of confidence in the economy and unemployment remains low. One of the things they love to spend (disposable income) on is travel."

In Southern California -- Las Vegas' largest market -- gas prices now average $1.63 per gallon, up 20 percent from July 1999.

But that doesn't add much to a vacation bill -- Moreno pointed out that a 50-cent rise per gallon in gasoline prices would add an average of $25 per 1,000 miles driven.

"When you factor in total vacation costs, $25 is not that much of an increase," Moreno said.

Though the LVCVA is also confident this weekend will be stronger than 1999, transportation manager Bill Mahaffey said he's starting to grow concerned about rising gas prices.

"Gasoline prices have escalated so dramatically in the past (few) weeks, and we're monitoring the situation very closely to see what's happening," Mahaffey said. "We're getting a sense that some people are being cautious about their travel because of fuel costs."

However, the fact that many will be taking four days off this weekend, combined with increased airline and hotel capacity, should more than offset higher gas prices, Mahaffey said.

"We're expecting a very strong weekend," Mahaffey said. "If we lose any car traffic, we expect it to be minimal ... and any loss in car traffic will definitely be picked up through increased air traffic."

One big reason for the optimism, Mahaffey said, is incredibly high demand for flights into Las Vegas.

"The airlines are completely full," Mahaffey said. "I can't even get some of our staff out (of Las Vegas on flights)."