Gas price hike won’t slow holiday travelers

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

The recent spike in local gasoline prices isn't expected to deter the highest number of Americans since 1995 from traveling over the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend, travel officials said Wednesday.

That's good news for Las Vegas, which figures to be one of the nation's top beneficiaries of the robust travel weekend with officials at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority projecting 275,000 people arriving here for the traditional farewell to summer. That's 3.8 percent more than the 265,000 people who visited Las Vegas last Labor Day weekend.

"Our past experience has shown us that in the big picture, travel numbers don't seem to be really closely correlated with gasoline prices," said Lisa Foster, a spokeswoman for AAA Nevada. "Many people made their travel plans before this most recent spike in prices, so we don't expect them to change their plans."

That also holds true for Nevada residents traveling elsewhere, according to an AAA Nevada survey that reports about 291,000 residents of the state have planned trips for the holiday weekend, an increase of 3 percent from last year.

An estimated 80 percent will take the car, despite average gasoline prices hovering around $1.95 for a gallon of regular unleaded in the Silver State, an increase of 29 cents a gallon since AAA's mid-month survey.

Foster said that could seem like a bargain to travelers from California, who have been paying closer to $2.15 a gallon this week. But even those prices won't prevent people from heading west this weekend, as AAA ranks San Diego and Disneyland among the most popular Labor Day getaways for Nevadans.

Filling up at the Texaco Station on Pecos and Flamingo on Wednesday, Adela Huwe said she was planning to drive rather than fly to Los Angeles for the holiday weekend because planes make her nervous.

Bill McClirk, whose SUV required nearly $40 for a fill-up, said he has been trying to drive less with prices so high, but he couldn't see canceling a vacation to save gas money.

Thankfully for local businesses, those traveling to Las Vegas this weekend are apparently following the same reasoning.

The LVCVA's forecast for 275,000 visitors projects an occupancy rate of 93.5 percent in Southern Nevada's motels and hotels. That's 2.1 points more than the occupancy rate for Labor Day 2002. Based on typical spending patterns, 275,000 tourists would produce a nongaming economic impact of $165.5 million on the city, LVCVA officials said.

A spot check of some Las Vegas resorts Wednesday indicated that many hotels are already sold out. Gary Thompson, a spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment Inc., said both Harrah's Las Vegas on the Strip and the Rio hotel-casino are completely booked, while Alan Feldman, a spokesman for MGM MIRAGE, said the company's MGM Grand, Bellagio, Mirage, New York-New York and Golden Nugget properties are expected to be at capacity.

Kevin Bagger, director of research for the LVCVA, said higher visitor projections are based on mild improvements in the economy and the fact that visitation has been increasing gradually over the last couple of months.

Those projections match predictions by AAA, which said that nationally, 33.4 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home on the weekend, up 1.8 percent from last year's Labor Day holiday.

Of that total, 28.2 million people will travel by car, 3.7 million will travel by plane and the rest will take buses, trains or other modes of transportation to get to their destinations.

While travel by car will be up by 2.2 percent over last year, trips by plane will be down by 2.6 percent from Labor Day 2002, AAA said in a release.

AAA officials say pent-up demand for travel following the war in Iraq and a cool, wet spring in the eastern United States are jump-starting interest in travel now. The nation's largest travel organization also said the Labor Day weekend is earlier on this year's calendar, with the traditional Monday holiday falling on the first day of September, producing a psychological boost to get away for the traditional end of summer.

AAA of Northern California, which monitors travel for the whole state, said 4.8 million Californians will travel 50 miles or more over the weekend, with 79 percent of them making the journey in their cars.

In a AAA survey, Northern Californians listed Las Vegas as their No. 3 favorite destination by car, behind Yosemite National Park and Disneyland. The city ranked No. 5 among destinations reached by other modes of transportation, trailing Disneyland, Hawaii, Baja California in Mexico and Lake Tahoe.

Despite the prevalence of car travel, McCarran International Airport is also expecting a busy weekend, airport spokeswoman Debbie Millett said.

"It looks like it will be a normal busy weekend for us with close to 100,000 passengers going through the airport," Millett said. "Those that know their way around the airport may not need to arrive two hours before their flight, but if they get in line, they'll be glad they did."