Las Vegas visitor volume, hotel occupancy up in July

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003 | 11:19 a.m.

Visitation to Las Vegas was up by 4.5 percent in July over the previous year as statistics in nearly every tourism category showed improvements from July 2002.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said Wednesday that visitor volume hit 3.1 million, up from 3 million in the same month the previous year. Convention attendance was up 70 percent to 264,738 for the month and motel and hotel occupancy was up 3.6 points to 88 percent.

The average number of cars traveling on Interstate 15 between Southern California and Las Vegas rose 7.8 percent to 44,952 vehicles and the total number of passengers using McCarran International Airport increased by 6.4 percent to 3.2 million passengers. The numbers of passengers using the airport is higher than the total number of visitors to the city because many passengers change planes and are bound for other destinations when they arrive in Las Vegas.

The LVCVA also said visitor volume increased in July from the previous year in Laughlin (up 3.7 percent to 375,761) and Mesquite (up 20 percent to 150,846). Visitor volume was up in Laughlin despite a 5.9 percent drop-off in convention attendance there.