City shows slight visitor increase in May

Wednesday, July 18, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

Las Vegas eked out a marginal increase in visitor volume in May, despite a dramatic drop in convention business, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Tuesday.

Las Vegas hosted 3.07 million visitors in May, up 0.7 percent from May 2000, the LVCVA said. That growth rate is in line with the 0.8 percent visitor growth rate Las Vegas has posted over the first five months of 2001. Room nights occupied rose 0.2 percent to 3.4 million.

But because the number of hotel rooms increased at a 2.9 percent rate over the period, average occupancy fell 2.3 percentage points to 90.3 percent for the month.

Convention attendance slid 13 percent for the month to 332,000, and the economic impact of conventions declined 9.9 percent to $375 million. However, gaming revenue was up 7.8 percent in Clark County to $684.5 million, and passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport increased 3.7 percent to 3.21 million.

Automobile traffic from Southern California was also strong during the month -- the Yermo Inspection Station, located between Los Angeles and Las Vegas on Interstate 15, recorded 546,529 cars in May, up 10.9 percent from May 2000.

In Laughlin, visitor volume fell 3.9 percent to 376,000. But Mesquite saw visitor counts increase 1.5 percent to 136,000 in May.