Resort business strong during weekend

David Strow

Monday, Oct. 8, 2001 | 9:57 a.m.

Business continued to recover this weekend along the Strip, as visitors slowly began returning to Las Vegas.

But the city now faces a second unknown -- how will visitors react now that U.S. retaliatory strikes have begun in the Middle East?

"I won't speculate about this, because there's too many factors," said Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM MIRAGE. "Call volumes to our reservation center dropped off very noticeably (Sunday) morning, but that's not unexpected at a time like this. We'll have to see what happens through the rest of today. It may just have been the very much expected drop-off as people tuned into TV ... or longer term."

"We have the Gulf War model, but there really is no precedent for what we're seeing right now," said Debbie Munch, spokeswoman for Park Place Entertainment Corp.

Still, there is optimism it won't make much of a difference.

"I think it's business as usual," said Andrew Zarnett, gaming analyst with Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. "These responses were clearly expected. Americans were ready for it."

Citywide occupancy numbers were not yet available this morning, though the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority had been projecting an 84 percent citywide occupancy rate this weekend. It had projected similar numbers the weekend before, but stronger-than-expected drive-in traffic boosted occupancy to 93 percent.

Weekend business remains "very, very strong" at Park Place properties, Munch said. MGM MIRAGE is reporting similar trends.

"Across the board, we were either sold out or nearly sold out," Feldman said. "Rates were closer to normal than they were last weekend."

Prior to the attacks, business appeared solid along the Strip, though not back to pre-Sept. 11 levels. Business appeared especially strong at the Venetian, presumably because of the Sunday openings of the Guggenheim and Hermitage museums there.

In sports books along the Strip, bettors and casino patrons watched President Bush's 10 a.m. speech announcing the attacks, gave cheers and hearty rounds of applause -- then promptly returned their attention to the day's slate of NFL games.

"It's a Sunday, and at that hour of the morning, the only thing keeping things moving is football," Feldman said. "We went from 100 percent to 70 percent between Sunday afternoon to today. Obviously you're seeing a decline, a substantial decline. Whether you view that in connection to what happened (Sunday), I don't know whether you can make that connection."

The outlook over the next few days isn't good, Feldman said. Though weekend business is returning, midweek business remains well below normal across the Strip.

"We're right back to occupancy problems this week," Feldman said. "We're seeing incredibly low rates and lots of empty rooms. There's been no improvement in midweek business, really."

And there's no apparent catalyst to change that, he said.

"There's nothing I can envision that will do it long-term," Feldman said. "Maybe something for a week, but I don't know if there's anything out there that will have a lasting impact."