Tourist visitation to Las Vegas in May sets record

By Liz Benston

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

A record number of people visited Las Vegas in May, the fourth month of record-setting monthly figures so far this year and an indicator of the strength of the city's tourism rebound, tourism officials said Monday.

About 3.3 million visitors came to Las Vegas in May, a 7 percent increase over the same month a year ago, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The figures mark the 11th consecutive year-over-year increase in monthly visitation, the bureau said. Visitation rose one half of 1 percent from the previous month.

A variety of factors boosted convention attendance significantly in May, officials said. Las Vegas hosted a few new shows that month, existing shows had more attendees and some shows moved from other months to May, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Senior Research Analyst John Piet said.

The National Hardware Show, a spinoff from a Chicago trade show, drew about 24,000 attendees. Also, the International Council of Shopping Centers conference and the Networld+Interop technology show each drew at least 4,000 more people this year than last, Piet said. The International Aesthetics and Cosmetics Show and the International Hair and Nail conference, among some other shows, moved from June to May, he said.

Convention attendance rose 27.7 percent to 509,298 people in May compared with a year ago, and the nongaming economic spending surrounding those conventions increased 32.1 percent to $608.2 million.

Occupancy rates rose 5.2 percentage points to 90.9 percent, and the average daily room rate increased 11 percent to $94.88.

Total passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport rose 17.7 percent to 3.6 million, while average daily auto traffic also rose slightly. Daily auto traffic rose 1.9 percent to 81,486 vehicles and traffic on I-15 at the California border was nearly flat at 38,155 vehicles.

That auto traffic is up while airport traffic continues to increase is significant and means that one form of travel isn't necessarily replacing the other, Piet said.

Las Vegas began to market aggressively to drive-in travelers after the 9/11 attacks but more people are still driving into town even as airline travel has rebounded, Piet said.