Las Vegas sees 10 percent drop in visitors

By Tim Richardson

Friday, Jan. 9, 2009 | 11:20 a.m.

The number of visitors to Las Vegas in November dropped nearly 10 percent compared to a year ago, according to numbers released today by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The LVCVA reported that 2,821,629 people visited the city in November, which is down from 3,129,508 visitors in November 2007. Hotel occupancy suffered, falling from about 87 percent to about 79 percent in the past year.

The average daily room rate fell more than 8 percent, from $118.45 to $108.80, the LVCVA reported. The number of room nights in November fell to about 3.27 million, a decrease of 6 percent.

Convention attendance fell 16.4 percent year-over-year, dropping from 602,605 visitors in November 2007 to 503,545 this past November. The number of conventions and meetings in Las Vegas declined nearly 14 percent.

Traffic at McCarran International Airport also took a tumble. The LVCVA reported that Las Vegas had about 3.2 million air passengers deplane or board an aircraft, which is down 14.7 percent from November 2007.

Traffic on all major Las Vegas area highways was down 5.5 percent, while traffic at the California line on Interstate 15 had fallen 4.4 percent, the LVCVA said.

Las Vegas had 34,741,853 visitors through the first 11 months of last year, down from 36,120,930 visitors during the same time in 2007.