Las Vegas sees 2 percent increase in May visitors

By Kyle B. Hansen

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 | 4:36 p.m.

The number of visitors to Las Vegas was up 2 percent in May compared to the same month last year, according to numbers released today from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

In May, the Las Vegas area had 3,262,831 visitors, the LVCVA said. In May 2009, the region had 3,199,719 visitors.

May was the ninth consecutive month of increased visitors compared to a year earlier, according to the LVCVA.

In the first five months of this year, the city had more than 15.4 million visitors, a 1.5 percent increase compared to the same period in 2009.

The city had an occupancy rate of 82.6 percent in May, a drop of 1.8 percent compared to a year ago because of additional hotel rooms. The average room rate was up 2 percent in May, to $98.87 a night.

Convention attendance was up 3.1 percent despite a 4 percent decrease in the number of conventions and meetings in the month, the authority said.

The number of passengers at McCarran International Airport fell 1.6 percent in May, but the number of cars passing the Nevada/California line on Interstate 15 was up 1.1 percent.

Laughlin and Mesquite didn’t share in Las Vegas’ visitor increase.

The number of visitors to Laughlin in May fell 7.4 percent compared to a year ago, while visitors to Mesquite dropped 8.1 percent in May 2010.