LV visitation hits record

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2004 | 10:44 a.m.

Las Vegas had the most monthly visitors in its history in October as 3.3 million people poured into the city's resorts.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Monday that visitor volume in October -- 3,333,322 people -- was fractionally higher than the previous record posted in March 2001 of 3,301,853 visitors.

The city is now on track to play host to more than 37 million visitors in 2004, which also would be a record. The record for most visitors in a year is 35.8 million people in 2000.

LVCVA officials said they would make their annual projection for 2005 in January.

"The destination is running on all cylinders, with a strong convention segment as well as the tourist component," said Kevin Bagger, director of Internet marketing and research for the LVCVA.

The October visitation figure was 7.2 percent greater than the 3.1 million tourists counted in the same month a year ago.

Gaming industry officials were enthused with the statistics, noting that developing nongaming amenities has really paid off.

"We're very pleased with the numbers," said Yvette Monet, a spokeswoman for MGM Mirage. "We've taken the nongaming side of our business to a new level in recent years with new shopping opportunities, a greater variety of shows and world-class restaurants. These are all features that are appealing to a greater number of visitors."

Monet also noted that convention and meeting attendance has soared, putting heads in beds during the often-slack midweek periods.

The LVCVA said year-over-year statistics for the month were higher in virtually every tourism category tracked.

Convention attendance was up 14 percent to 624,429 while the number of meetings conducted climbed 8.4 percent to 3,085. Nongaming economic impact was up 17 percent to $748.7 million.

Occupancy levels at the city's resorts climbed 6.2 points to 93.8 percent, with weekend occupancy up 2.1 points to a near-capacity level of 98.2 percent.

The average daily room rate also soared by double-digit percentage increases for the second straight month and crashed through the $100 barrier. The rate went up 12.9 percent to $100.87 a night.

The only two visitor growth categories that were down for the month were the number of charter and international airline passengers enplaned or deplaned at McCarran International Airport, down 5.1 percent to 280,792, and the average daily auto traffic on Interstate 15 at the Nevada-California border, down 0.2 percent to 34,462.

The LVCVA, which also monitors visitation at Mesquite and Laughlin, reported October traffic up in Mesquite by 6.6 percent to 159,942 people, but down in Laughlin by 4.6 percent to 318,397.

For the year, traffic is down by 3.1 percent in Laughlin to 3.5 million people, while Mesquite visitation is up 1.9 percent to 1.5 million for the first 10 months of 2004.