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February 13, 2012

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Las Vegas monthly visitor numbers continue to climb

November visitors increased 2.9 percent from a year earlier

By Amanda Finnegan, Richard N. Velotta (contact)

Published Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010 | 10:45 a.m.

Updated Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010 | 11:17 a.m.

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November marked the third consecutive year-over-year increase in monthly visitation, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced today.

More than 2.9 million people visited Las Vegas during November 2009, an increase of 2.9 percent from November 2008.

Hotel occupancy fell 0.8 percentage points compared to last November, the smallest year-over-year decline since January 2008, the LVCVA said in its monthly report. Citywide occupancy was at 79.2 percent in November 2009 compared to 78.4 percent during the same period last year.

November also brought a year-over-year increase in weekend occupancy for the fourth time in 2009, according to the LVCVA.

The average daily room rate fell 14.9 percent from $108.80 in November 2008 to $92.61 in November 2009.

Convention attendance dropped 13 percent during the year-over-year period from about 504,000 to 438,000. Average daily auto traffic on major highways increased 1 percent while traffic at the Nevada/California border increased 1.8 percent. Air traffic remained flat during the year-over-year period.

Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said he was happy to see the increases in visitor volume, auto traffic and gaming revenue, but he isn’t ready to call it a trend.

“We still need to see a rise in total spend and in the average daily room rate to get back on track,” Ralenkotter said after an LVCVA board meeting this morning.

Ralenkotter said he also examines the national unemployment rate and consumer confidence indices to gauge the city’s tourism outlook.

“I think we had a great start for our convention calendar in 2010 with attendance at CES (Consumer Electronics Show), so it’s positive, but I think we need to see more before we can say we’re out it,” he said.

Ralenkotter and Brenda Siddall, vice president of finance for the LVCVA, said six consecutive months of improvement would be indicative of a positive trend.

Ralenkotter added that it likely would take more time than that to consider starting up work on the delayed $890 million Las Vegas Convention Center refurbishment project.

“We would need to look at revenue streams and get back with our customers on schedules before we could even consider that,” Ralenkotter said.

Visitor volume in Laughlin fell 17 percent from November 2008 to November 2009, according to the LVCVA. Visitation numbers in Mesquite dropped 21 percent during the same period.

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