Increase in traffic doesn’t help visitation

Tuesday, April 2, 2002 | 10:49 a.m.

January visitor volume fell 6.6 percent in Laughlin, despite a dramatic increase in the number of cars using Highway 163.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which monitors visitor traffic to Laughlin, said visits fell to 358,652 from 383,993 in January 2001.

In addition, gross gaming revenue was off 5.1 percent to $49.5 million, convention attendance was down 18.5 percent to 9,957 people, airline passenger traffic fell 27.9 percent to 6,316 people and the hotel occupancy rate fell 5.9 points to 79.4 percent for the month.

While most visitation statistics were down, the average daily traffic on Highway 163, which connects with U.S. 95 to Las Vegas, was up 33.4 percent to 6,070 vehicles.

LVCVA officials theorized that the increased traffic was due to motorists to and from Arizona bypassing the heavily trafficked Hoover Dam on U.S. 93 and passing through Laughlin en route to Las Vegas.