Experts studying July 4 travel decline

Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority researchers say it's too early to determine whether a tourism drop-off in the middle of the July 4 holiday weekend represents a new visitor trend.

The LVCVA's Kevin Bagger said researchers were asked to determine whether the 12 percent drop in the number of tourists from Thursday to Saturday was an anomaly or a factor that could be forecast in the future.

Bagger said the occupancy rate for the holiday weekend, 88.5 percent, was comparable to the 2001 level, with an average of 260,000 tourists in the city each day over the four days. But what was unusual was that the number of visitors in the city on the peak day -- 275,000 on Thursday, the Fourth of July -- fell to 243,000 by Saturday.

"They chose to treat it as an early weekend instead of an extended weekend," Bagger said.

Researchers will try to determine why the pattern emerged and if it represents a trend.

The Fourth of July holiday is unusual because it falls on different days of the week each year, he said. Visitor counts are easier to project on other holidays, he said, because they normally fall on Mondays or Fridays, extending the weekend.

In other business, the LVCVA board of directors allocated an additional $1.5 million to help settle contractors' claims that have not been paid for work on the $180 million South Hall expansion at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The board already has spent $5.6 million to resolve disputes from about 30 subcontractors working with PCL Construction Services, Denver, which coordinated work on the 1.3 million-square-foot expansion. The project costs rose when several systems for the building were modified as construction progressed.