November visitation up despite drop in conventioneers

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

Convention attendance in Las Vegas was off in November, but it didn't prevent the destination from finishing ahead of year-ago figures despite an unfavorable calendar.

The cancellation of Comdex contributed to a 3.7 percent drop in convention attendance, but Las Vegas still played host to 2.9 million visitors for the month, a 2.7 percent increase over November 2003. This year's statistics were generally higher despite November's having an extra weekend a year ago, according to a report Wednesday by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Marc Falcone, a gaming analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., said in a note to investors today that the healthy attendance at automotive conventions earlier in the month helped offset the loss of Comdex, which most recently had attendance of about 50,000 people.

Falcone also said revenue per available room grew 9.1 percent in November to $76.40, driven by a 5.7 percent increase in the average daily room rate to $90.20.

Statistically, Falcone said Las Vegas finished the year strong.

"We also believe 2005 is also off to a very strong start with strong business volumes post-New Year's and a solid convention calendar," he said in his report. "Group bookings overall in the first quarter are expected to be up 8 to 10 percent with a similar increase in average rates. Furthermore, our room rate survey is showing room rates up an average of 13 percent quarter to date against generally tough comparisons."

The LVCVA said visitation was up for the 16th time in the last 17 months. It was the fourth month of 2004 to have a decrease in convention attendance. For the first 11 months of 2004, there were 21,347 meetings, conventions and trade shows at Las Vegas properties, an 8.1 percent decrease from the previous year.

But the overall attendance at those events is up 3.7 percent for the year to 5.7 million people and the economic impact of conventions is up 7.4 percent to an estimated $6.9 billion.

While Las Vegas has flourished in 2004, visitor volume is off 3.4 percent in Laughlin and has increased only 1.8 percent in Mesquite. The LVCVA reported that 3.8 million people have visited Laughlin through the first 11 months and 1.6 million have visited Mesquite.