Holiday weekend a busy one

Monday, July 7, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.

Pirates at Treasure Island said goodbye to the crowd after the 16,334th -- and final -- Battle of Buccaneer Bay performance Sunday. Treasure Island is recasting itself as "TI" and is re-working the pirate extravaganza that attracts 4.5 million people a year. The new version debuts in October and will include the "Sirens of TI," showgirls dueling pirates.

Traffic and pedestrians clogged the Strip Friday. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority had projected 275,000 people would visit the city over the Independence Day weekend, a 2.6 percent increase over the 268,000 who traveled to Las Vegas for that holiday last year. LVCVA senior research analyst John Piet said today that it was too early to determine whether the projection was reached, but several hotels reported being at capacity. The reason for the increase over last year, Piet said, is that this year the migrating holiday fell on a Friday -- resulting in a true three-day weekend allowing greater flexibility in travel. Piet also said several national travel indicators were up, leading to the favorable projection.