December visitation to Las Vegas up 9 percent

Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001 | 11:18 a.m.

Las Vegas hosted 2.74 million visitors in the last month of 2000, an increase of 9 percent from December 1999, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Tuesday.

The increase is far greater than the 2.9 percent growth rate posted in December 1999, which was marked by a disappointing New Year's weekend.

McCarran International Airport reported 2.96 million passengers during December 2000, an increase of 15.1 percent. Average daily traffic on major highways into Las Vegas increased 4.6 percent to 67,373, while auto traffic at the Yermo Inspection Station between Las Vegas and Los Angeles rose more than 18 percent to 561,254.

The only significant decline for the month came in convention attendance, which fell 9 percent to 105,000. Total hotel room occupancy for the month was 78.1 percent, up from 74.4 percent a year ago. Gaming win rose 9 percent on the Strip to $428.6 million.

Laughlin reported a 8.8 percent increase in visitor traffic, to 308,000, while occupancy rose from 64.8 percent to 71.1 percent. But visitor volume fell 21 percent in Mesquite to 101,000, while occupancy plunged more than 10 percentage points to 60.2 percent.

For all of 2000, Las Vegas hosted 35.8 million visitors, an increase of 6 percent over 1999. That represents yet another record year for Las Vegas, though the growth rate was down nearly 5 percentage points from 1999.

Occupancy for the year averaged 89.1 percent, up from 88 percent in 1999, while convention attendance rose 2 percent to 3.9 million. McCarran recorded 36.9 million passengers for the year, a 9 percent increase.