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Friday, Sept. 10, 2010 | 10:14 a.m.
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In another sign that the city’s tourism industry is improving, Las Vegas in July saw its largest year-over-year visitation increase since December 2005, according to numbers released today.
The number of visitors during July increased by 4.7 percent from fewer than 3.2 million in July 2009 to more than 3.3 million this year, according to a report by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
The LVCVA said July tourism numbers benefited from an extra Saturday in the month, record drive-in traffic and an increase in convention attendance.
Citywide hotel occupancy held steady at about 84 percent as the number of rooms increased by about 7,000 since last July, primarily due to the addition of CityCenter.
The average daily room rate increased 4.8 percent from $86.23 in July 2009 to $90.38 this past July, the LVCVA said. Room rates are still down significantly from pre-recession levels.
Overall gaming revenue fell 5 percent from $729.9 million in July 2009 to $693.4 million in July of this year, but with stronger baccarat numbers, the Strip matched last July’s gaming revenue.
Convention attendance increased by more than 28 percent in July, primarily because of a new large convention, DeafNation, which brought about 23,400 visitors to Las Vegas.
Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport was down 1.1 percent, but vehicle traffic on Interstate 15 at the Nevada/California state line was up 4.7 percent.
Visitor volume to Laughlin dropped 0.6 percent from July 2009 to July 2010, while the number of visitors fell 5 percent in Mesquite.
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Nice! Time to celebrate, I'll drop a dollar in the slot machine next time I walk through a casino.
I pray our economy gets better. We have so many out of work and we need to get back to work now. Green jobs, health jobs and tech jobs are coming. They are in the future. We need guick jobs now. I also pray we learned our lesson that casino jobs are important but it cannot sustain us. We need to diversify and the controllers of this city should not forget that.
Chunky says:
Yay! Finally some good news! We need every little bit we can get!
Hospitality / casino peeps; take good care of our visitors!
Tourism built this town and tourism will help us all recover!
That's what Chunky thinks!
Wisely took a cab home from the Strip this Saturday, and the cabbie said it was the busiest weekend they'd seen since the good 'ol days (of a few years ago).
Nice to hear some good news from a few different sources.
Living here it's easy to be critical of the city, but all you need to do is travel anywhere else, and you'll quickly find out that Vegas really does offer travelers a ton of value and a lot of fun.
This is good news.
That said, until Las Vegas's annual visitation numbers and its permanent resident numbers return to balance, things will still need adjusting.
http://weeklyseven.com/news/2010/july/08...
This is definitely good news, I own a bunch of MGM shares! Yippeee!
Ok this is BS because this article only tells half the story!
What the article fails to mention is that because of lowered room rates in the hotels, YES more people are coming here but the lower room rates has brought BOTTOM FEEDERS who don't go out to eat, don't go to shows, nor do they spend money on limos, cabs, shopping, gambling etc.
I know this is be a fact because I work on the strip as a cab driver. All these people do anymore is go to the pool all day with their little brats (who shouldn't even be here anyway) and foreigners who walk up and down the strip at night til about 11 or midnight looking at the FREE shows @ Bellagio, TI and Mirage.
After that, it's a ghost town out there.
They have been canceling shows in the hotels do to LOW TICKET SALES some nights. My friend is a waiter down there @ Bellagio it's SLOW. My other friend does cocktails (extra board) and she has been having to collect unemployment because they rarely call her in. Taxi stand attendant @ TI told me that the whole place is on a skeleton crew.
Don't believe everything you read and get the whole picture people!
Gambling down...HHHMMMMMM You are then raising your room rates???? Get the picture????When will your greed cease.
What a crock, percent statistics are always misleading. The one additional Saturday in July could easily account for the increase. Each day in July accounts for 3.1% of the month and Saturday's are at least double the normal week day count. Also, 4.7 % of the low 2009 number is almost insignificant, while 4.7 % of the high 2005 number is quite considerable. Remember 4.7% of 100 is only 4.7 but 4.7 % of a million is 47,000.
ihop asks, "When will your greed cease."
Las Vegas was certainly built on greed: The greed of tourists coming here to try their hand at quick and easy money. We are a mirror, if nothing else.
spoiler; i wouldn't say its insignificant
3,330,658 visitors in july as opposed to 3,388,437 visitors in july 2005
downtown gaming is off some 20%, that place is dying
It is always good to be critical of our city otherwise the powers that be will continue their destructive ways. Residents need to be vigilant and yes support our city especially small businesses. It all goes around. I'm not sympathetic to casinos/resorts because they dug themselves too deep, they know what to do to get out of it.
"downtown gaming is off some 20%, that place is dying"
Interesting. I drive through downtown everyday, and it is among the most vibrant business districts in town. Gambling may be having a tough time overall, but downtown is remaking itself into a different kind of urban experience (the East Fremont entertainment district, the Arts District, and the Symphony Park area, for example). Some of the older gambling venues need overhauling, and perhaps some of them need to disappear altogether, or be remade entirely, but just walking into Binion's or the Golden Gate gives one a sense of the history too many lazy people blindly insist does not exist here.
Las Vegas may ultimately arise from the global economic mess as a smaller place, but that could mean great things for our future.
The El Cortez in Downtown has become a real asset. I can't impossibly see any signs of decline there. They really know how to run this place. It caters to locals and to tourists alike. People that have been returning for years love the El Cortez for it's hospitality. It's something special and something a typical Strip megaresort visitor will probably never get to experience.
Greetings from Switzerland
I agree with LasVegasDiva. I work in retail on the strip and this past Holiday weekend was a huge disappointment in sales, not just where I work but for many others on the strip. I suppose this story is to give people hope, but it's not the truth when it comes to the dollars spent by these tourists.
Thinking about it now the article compares this past month to 5 years ago. We had our best most recent years in the years 2007-2008 then taking a nose dive in 2009. If you look at the numbers most places are barely exceeding what they did last year at this time to date. You can see the results when you go into anyone of the nicer strip malls and see how many name brand stores closed shop, being replaced by lower brands. I've also noticed some designer stores where in the past would recoil at the idea of advertising a sale, but are now doing whatever it takes to bring people in and buy. A different sale every weekend.
"I agree with LasVegasDiva. I work in retail on the strip and this past Holiday weekend was a huge disappointment in sales, not just where I work but for many others on the strip. I suppose this story is to give people hope, but it's not the truth when it comes to the dollars spent by these tourists."
One person experiencing one thing does not a trend make, in either direction. The purpose of a news story is not "to give people hope"; news is objective. I'm sorry that your experience was weaker than you expected, but that was not the experience across the board. There is a sense of bouncing along a bottom, and after two-plus years of drops, that is good news no matter how you slice it.
Not everyone will survive in Las Vegas. Not every business will remain open and not everyone who lived here in 2007 will stay. I don't see a problem with shaking the tree a little.
I don't care if tourists come with kids or not, it's their vacation and if cabbies don't like it, tough...They're still spending some money even if it's just a little.
As far as the overall economy, until the unemployment rate here drops and locals can actually pump their own money in, it won't matter how mcuh outsiders spend.
Short term: We need a more coordinated and aggressive effort to draw conventions/trade shows here AND repairs & widening to I-15.
Long term: Diversify our existing entertainment base into related areas via theater, music, arts, and entertainment tech districts. Continue to push solar power generation development, and increase support for DoD & DoE R&D efforts in CC and outlying areas.
We need more & better jobs, an educational system that succeeds, far fewer thugs & gangbangers, and less dependency on a busted Uncle Sugar. But most of all, we need leaders who can help us get there!
Tough times to be a cabbie :(
So it's no fun to long haul kids and foreigners through the airport tunnel?
It's not the number of visitors that count, it's how much money they leave here. Having an increase is nice but it's only one side of the recovery equation.
LOL, can't we all just be a little happy about even a slight increase. And as far as the cabbies go what not enough tourist to take advantage of.
Stop your whining. Go out...spend a buck. I know its difficult to do that but we need to get out more. The tourists did come in, they did spend some money. But obviously not enough for some. If you knew how to be nice maybe you would reap the rewards. I even tip @ taco bell drive thru!
I have to agree with the majority here. Even if there are more people coming down right now its more because of cheap or free rooms, and being low season, most casinos are offering package deals that are really hard to turn down. Since we moved, and we are no longer considered "locals" we are constantly getting offers from Wynn, Luxor, MGM, you name it. Funny that when were locals, they treated us like crap.
Now in Seattle, this summer has been crazy busy with tourists. Every weekend there are music festivals, county fairs, automobile and horse racing, and we have very large Indian Casinos that are so busy you can't find a slot machine or a seat at the the tables after 6pm. And people are winning....what a concept! The airport is constantly packed with people coming and going. The last time I was at McCarran it looked like a ghost town. Even during the winter, there are tons of things to do for EVERYONE, not just adults.
So why is our economy here doing so much better? Its called choice....Las Vegas needs to get a clue and start offering more than just adult entertainment, then the tourists will come. Start making your political leaders do their job, and stop with the payoffs from casino bigwigs. Our casinos here actually have to meet a certain pay out to their customers every month, or they get FINED, and I mean big time. Now we all know that they make profit, no doubt, but at least you stand a chance to win here. Not anywhere on the strip do you stand a chance in he-- to win even your money back. Why should people spend their money there? No wonder they take the free room, free food, free shows, etc. At least they feel they won SOMETHING!!
A cab driver that doesn,t like kids or forieners. Great attitude for a crabbie. Care to let us know what company you work for?