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StumbleNumber of visitors to Las Vegas dropped 3 percent last year
Published Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 | 11:19 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 | 4:55 p.m.
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The number of visitors to Las Vegas declined by 3 percent last year when compared to 2008.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said the city had 36,351,469 visitors last year. The average daily room rate for 2009 was $92.93, which was a drop of 22 percent compared to a year earlier.
Room inventory finished the year at 148,941, which was a 6 percent increase in the number of rooms over the past year. The average occupancy rate was 81.5 percent last year, which was down 4.5 percentage points from a year earlier.
Convention attendance was down 23.9 percent last year, while the number of conventions was down 13.6 percent, the LVCVA said.
But the numbers weren’t all bad.
A trend of increasing visitor numbers continued into the December, according to numbers released today. Las Vegas had 2,780,648 visitors in December, which was up 1.5 percent compared to December 2008.
It’s the fourth consecutive month that year-over-year visitor numbers have increased.
The LVCVA said convention attendance in December was up 11.6 percent compared to a year earlier, while the number of conventions was up 10 percent.
Kevin Bagger, senior director of marketing for the LVCVA, told the organization’s board of directors Tuesday that he is forecasting a 3 percent increase in visitors in 2010 to an estimated 37.4 million.
Bagger said that while Las Vegas’ 81.5 percent occupancy rate was down from last year, it still was considerably healthier than other centers of tourism. Citing statistics from Smith Travel Research, Bagger said convention-hosting rival Orlando had occupancy of 60.7 percent in 2009 while Chicago had a rate of 56.6 percent.
Other cities in the comparison: New York had an occupancy rate of 77.2 percent, the Hawaiian island of Oahu, 73.3 percent, and San Francisco, 71.6 percent. The U.S. average rate was 55.1 percent, down 5.2 percentage points from last year.
Las Vegas’ occupancy rate has been challenged by the dramatic increase in the number of rooms in the city. The 6 percent increase in the number of rooms translates into a net change of 8,412 rooms with the opening of the M Resort and CityCenter and expansions at the Golden Nugget, Planet Hollywood and two at the Hard Rock.
Other cities struggled with their average daily room rates, but Las Vegas’ 22 percent decline was the largest by percentage of any of the major tourism centers and at $92.93 was below the national average.
The average national ADR was calculated at $98, 8.8 percent below the 2009 level.
Most of the other major tourism centers were off by double-digit percentages. New York City’s ADR fell 21.8 percent to $215, Chicago’s fell 14.5 percent to $113 and Orlando’s fell 12.2 percent to $93.
Bagger said the LVCVA is happy about the four consecutive months of visitor volume increases, but leaders also are pleased with the three consecutive months of increases in the consumer confidence index through January.
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hey, you think they'll blame the liberals or obama?
Again, to all of you stubborn greedy corporate casino operators, bring back all of the once offered value to the Las Vegas vacation experience, and the tourists will return. until then you all deserve your loss of profits. Unfortunately the unemployed don't deserve what they got, but the corporate greedsters only care about one thing, their own pockets.
bring back comps and payouts greedy casinos!
With Obama making statment,do not go to Las Vegas and blow your money what do you want.
Setting aside for the moment that Nevada's supposedly business-friendly tax structure doesn't work in doing the job of attracting business and industry (the state hinges solely on a tourism and gambling economy because of it), the casinos have basically priced out regular folks from coming here. This doesn't have anything to do with remarks from the president. This has to do with the fact that the average visitor isn't Jay-Z or Lady Gaga - they're not bigballers.
More room inventory at the same time as less visitor volume and less revenue makes for tough times. A couple more properties may wind up closing their doors soon (so long LLV Ritz Carlton). In the long run, this could be a good thing; One must balance supply with demand.
Speaking of the long run, VV above is right. We need to make Vegas unique again. There's too much casino gaming around the US and the world right now presenting too many alternatives to the LV vacation. How about legalizing (and regulating and taxing) prostitution and recreational drug use. "Amsterdam of the Western Hemisphere". Bring back demand and watch business and tax revenues soar!
I think its Nancy Pelosi's fault. I mean isn't everything her fault.
Let's lay off cops, less people, less crime.
something doesn't jive here.
i'm sorry, but it's GOTTA be more than 3% loss. i've been in and out of vegas 4 or 5 times in 2009 and it's visible that business is down.
i can't think of any business or industry where a 3% loss of people coming through the door would trigger a 22% reduction in your prices (room rate) and a near 24% reduction in convention business only results in a 3% loss?
huh?
i'd like to see the real, raw "pre-spin" data they used for this report.
3% wouldn't trigger a change in ownership of planet hollywood, close the ritz, etc.
the LVCVA...that makes money and gets contracts based on the amount of visitors that come to vegas...isn't really an objective distributor of this info.
Let's not forget the 2007 total of 39.2 million, which the Sun left out.
That fell to 37.5 million in 2008.
Now we're at 36.4 million in 2009.
Obama must be filled with joy.
Less and less people coming to Las Vegas to waste their cash on.
You go, Mr. President.
stevem; the convention business accounts for about 10% of all visitors to vegas so a drop of 23% in that sector would indeed account for a drop of 3% overall
It is going to get better. Just hope for change.
a 3% drop is almost 1.1 million visitors. that's a lot of folks not coming, gambling, eating, seeing shows, filling up rooms. that adds up. that pays for lots of jobs along the strip.
and let's not forget the biggest factor. the per person spending of the 36+ million folks who did come ate at less expensive eateries, gambled less money, bought fewer gifts, saw fewer shows, stayed fewer days.
we need to diversify this local economy, but we can't. since no one will pay for decent teachers in our schools, we can't offer the family members of business and corporations a decent life if they relocate here.
low taxes only goes so far if you don't have a culture of education, the arts and the other amenities that cities like chicago, new york, st. louis, san francisco, etc. etc. etc. can offer the workers of big companies. that's why those cities get the world headquarters of so many corporations.
let's round the visitors in 2008 up to 40,000,000 for the sake of simplicity.
40,000,000 x 10% convention people (as the poster states) = 4,000,000 convention people for 2008.
4,000,000 less 23% convention people for 2009 = 3,080,000.
that's a 920,000 decrease.
920,000 taken away from 40,000,000 visitors is a 2.3% in visitors in that category ALONE!
there's just no way...if that 10% amount is accurate for it to only be a 3% drop in total visitors. it has to be higher.
One of the factors that starting to effect
the numbers of visitors to Las Vegas is
the high price of airline tickets. From Chicago,
the airline price is approaching $500 round trip.
We use to come to Vegas every year, now we go to the Indian Casino's, better comps.no airport hassle, friendly people and about the same odds.
Vegas needs to return to it's roots
That hopey-changey thingy will kick in anyday now.
las vegas will never really diversify itself. it's a "chicken and the egg" situation.
vegas would need to spend a ton of money...that it doesn't have to attract better paying jobs.
want new businesses with higher pay? you need an educated workforce. the vegas schools are horrible. want better schools? you need to raise taxes to hire better teachers...but higher taxes keeps new businesses away.
even with the insane tax rates and red tape in california, the computer companies are STILL in the bay area.
why? that's where the people that can do those jobs live.
just look at the mayor's focus. he spends so much time trying to get a sports stadium built.
huh?
ya, we need MORE $9.00 per hour jobs selling food and beer in vegas.
36 million visitors is still a lot of visitors. Greedy monopoly is hurting Las Vegas, CEO's of these gaming companies are to blame for the mess we are in. They need to start unloading their properties to lessen their debt load. There are many interested investors who would like to have a piece of the pie in Las Vegas but sadly because of the monopoly of these gaming companies, it is very hard for these OUTSIDERS to get their foot in.
Vegas is not what it was. We do have gambling here in Detroit. Vegas is in for some serious HARD TIMES! Now everyone can still tell us visitors Welcome to Las Vegas now go home on license plates. Like everyone is special.
Not anymore when visitor DECLINE and money got tight.
It's pretty bad when your occupancy goes from 90% to 80% and you can't make a buck. Most hotels operate profitably at 80% occupancy. Many would kill for $92 room rates. Obviously Vegas operations are just cutting it too thin if they can't be profitable at 80% occupancy and 36 MILLION visitors at $92 a night.
Obama must be filled with joy.
Less and less people coming to Las Vegas to waste their cash on.
You go, Mr. President.
Sheesh. You are an idiot. Go take your meds.
3% My damm fine A&*
Such inflationary numbers by the personnel contacted for their numbers/spreadsheets,etc
3% Bull$^#@
All anyone has to do,that has any length of residency in this cesspool we live in,is drive down to the strip and its right there in front of YOU!
3% Getting dizzy from this spinning
forget the masses from cali,and forget the sheepherd that litter the blvd daily without spending a nickel,walking back and forth aimlessly,taking digital pics with a samsung 3.2mp camera waiting until 8pm so they can master 5.00 min BJ,all the while recieving their free drinks,and cigs
3%
yeh right!!!
peace out
no free drinks ? no comps ? traffic ? why would anyone ruin a vacation. hotels offer a $49.00 rate, one day out of three months, do they think everyone is stupid and has money to throw away ? crap tables with $ 10.00 minimums, what a joke.