LVCVA says visitor estimate hit mark

Richard N. Velotta and Liz Benston

Monday, Nov. 29, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.

Marina Nicola, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said she thinks Las Vegas hosted the number of tourists that the authority projected would come.

The LVCVA had estimated that 272,000 would visit the city for the holiday weekend, a 3 percent increase over last year. And, because of the improved economy and a generally greater acceptance to travel, the agency projected 92.5 percent occupancy of the city's resorts this year, up 2.9 points from Thanksgiving 2003.

"It's a trend that we have seen across the board, a pent-up demand for travel," Nicola said. "People had the budgets to travel more for the holidays."

Nicola did her own first-person research on Sunday night, going out on the Strip on a day when many people were heading home.

"I was really impressed with how many people were out on the Strip on a Sunday night," she said. "I guess I would have expected that visitors would be going home and it wouldn't be quite as busy. The Forum Shops (at Caesars) were full and visitors seemed to be mesmerized by the Christmas decorations that were up. Las Vegas has a reputation for doing everything bigger and better and it's such a beautiful time of year to see the city."

If the LVCVA projections were on the mark, Las Vegas should have experienced a $163.1 million nongaming economic impact, a 2.5 percent increase over last year.

MGM Mirage's properties were "at or near capacity" over the Thanksgiving weekend, spokeswoman Yvette Monet said.

A Bette Midler concert at MGM Grand Friday drew a crowd of more than 10,000 people and another crowd of more than 10,000 descended on the property Saturday night for the Erik Morales-Marco Antonio Barrera III boxing match.

"These events, combined with popularity of our popular holiday buffets at our other properties created a lot of traffic over the weekend," Monet said.

Caesars Entertainment Inc. reported a "very solid weekend" and was close to selling out at all of its Strip properties, spokeswoman Stacy Solovey said. Over the weekend, the company kicked off a series of ice skating shows featuring former Olympians at its new outdoor ampitheater at Caesars Palace, which also will offer public skating through the holidays.

But Whittlesea Bell Transportation Co. President Brent Bell said while the weekend was better than average for his taxi company, "it wasn't a gangbuster weekend."

Bell said his company was still getting some post-holiday business today because many travelers saw their flights home canceled because of inclement weather in other parts of the country.

"We do a lot better on a lot of three-day weekends and when there are big fight weekends in town or during conventions," Bell said. "I thought it was going to be stronger than it was. But we have been getting quite a few calls today from customers who have encountered a lot of confusion over their flights being canceled and are trying to get home."