September tourism rises 9.7%

Monday, Nov. 15, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.

The second-highest percentage increase in monthly visitor volume of the year in September more than made up for a lackluster August, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority statistics released today show.

The LVCVA said 3.1 million tourists visited Las Vegas in September, up 9.7 percent from the 2.8 million who came during the same month a year earlier.

The first decline of 2004 occurred in August when visitor volume was down 1.1 percent from the previous year. But analysts said an aberration in the calendar was responsible for the August decline as well as the September boost.

In 2003, there were five weekends in August, including the traditional kickoff to the Labor Day weekend. This year, there were four weekends in August and the long holiday weekend fell completely in September.

The Labor Day calendar oddity also resulted in similar disparities in the number of conventioneers visiting Las Vegas. The LVCVA reported convention attendance of 568,325 people in September, nearly double the number from September 2003. August convention attendance was down 33.8 percent to 379,071, primarily due to differing dates of the Men's Apparel Guild in California fashion convention, one of the city's largest trade shows.

Occupancy levels and the average daily room rate showed major increases in September over the previous year. September occupancy was at 90.9 percent for the month, up 8 points from the previous year, and the average daily room hit $90.48, up 12.2 percent, the 19th consecutive month of increases.

Traffic on Interstate 15 was up 7 percent year over year for September. The LVCVA had no comparative data for traffic on the rest of the area's highways.

In Laughlin and Mesquite, visitor volume statistics headed in opposite directions for the month.

In Laughlin, the Colorado River resort city at the southern tip of the state, visitor volume fell 6.8 percent to 306,199 for the month. For the first nine months of 2004, volume is trending down, with 3.2 million visitors, a 2.9 percent decline for the year.

In Mesquite, on the Nevada-Arizona border northeast of Las Vegas on I-15, visitor volume was up 11 percent to 141,689. For the year, volume is up 1.4 percent to 1.3 million visitors.