LVCVA: Visitor volume up 2.6 percent in July

By Liz Benston (contact)

Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2004 | 10:40 a.m.

Las Vegas welcomed about 83,000 more visitors to Las Vegas in July than a year ago, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Monday.

Visitor volume rose 2.6 percent to 3.2 million people in July -- an increase boosted by improved midweek travel, said Kevin Bagger, director of research for the LVCVA.

The LVCVA figures include results from hotels and motels across the Las Vegas Valley, from North Las Vegas to the Boulder Strip and Henderson as well as the Las Vegas Strip.

Visitation is up 5.9 percent so far this year to 22 million people and is on track for an expected total of 36 million visitors this year, Bagger said.

Convention attendance increased less than 1 percent to 266,984 in July over the same month in 2003, and the non-gambling economic spending associated with those conventions rose 7.2 percent to $318.4 million.

"Convention visitors in general are spending more per trip, and we've had an increase in convention attendees," Bagger said.

Las Vegas hosted fewer smaller meetings this year in July, but that was offset by two larger shows that were new to town -- the Institute of Food Technologists with about 19,500 attendees and the Delta Sigma Theta sorority with about 14,000 visitors, he said.

Bagger said looking at one month of convention data can be misleading because events that return to Las Vegas each year might appear during different months and because some conventions cycle into Las Vegas from other cities.

So far this year, convention attendance is up 1.6 percent and non-gaming spending is up 6 percent compared with the same period of 2003.

Occupancy levels in July rose 1.5 percentage points to 89.5 percent. Average daily room rates rose $2.40 to $79.41. So far this year occupancy rates have risen 3.6 percent.

Average daily auto traffic on Interstate 15 at the California-Nevada border fell 0.3 percent to 44,831 vehicles in July compared with the same month last year. But relatively flat traffic trends have been accompanied by steep and steady increases in airplane travel as more tourists return to the sky after the Sept. 11 attacks. McCarran International Airport recently reported a 13.9 percent increase in total passenger traffic in July.

In Laughlin, visitor volume fell 4.2 percent to 360,069 and total hotel occupancy fell 2.6 percentage points to 84.2 percent. But other indicators were up, led by an 8.5 percent increase in airline passengers and a 6.6 percent increase in daily auto traffic on Highway 163.

Convention attendance in Laughlin rose 2.6 percent to 8,808 and average daily rates increased $1.73 to $36.69.

In Mesquite, visitor volume fell 3.2 percent to 146,068 and occupancy fell 3.3 percentage points to 84.9 percent. Average room rates were up $2.22 to 32.69 and average auto traffic on I-15 at the Nevada-Arizona border was up 1.7 percent.