Las Vegas sees visitor increase, room rates up 6 percent

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010 | 10:38 a.m.

Tourism officials reported today that Las Vegas continued to see an increase in visitors in June while the average daily room rate also inched upward.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said Las Vegas had more than 3.1 million visitors in June, which is up 4.3 percent from 2.98 million visitors in June 2009. The occupancy rate, 82.1 percent, remained stable because of a 5 percent increase in room inventory over the past year.

Monthly visitor volume has surpassed the prior year's level in Las Vegas nine of the past 10 months -- the only drop being a 0.1 percent decline in February.

The average daily room rate increased 6 percent over the year, from $84.50 to $89.54, the LVCVA said. The number of room nights occupied in Las Vegas was up about 5 percent, to more than 3.6 million in June.

Convention attendance slipped 1 percent while the number of conventions in the city was down about 10 percent.

The LVCVA reported that the number of passengers using McCarran International Airport was down 1 percent compared to June 2009, but traffic at the Nevada/California state line on Interstate 15 increased 4 percent.

Visitor volume in June was down 3.4 percent in Laughlin compared to a year earlier, while Mesquite recorded a 6.6 percent decline, the LVCVA said.

The LVCVA numbers came out the same day that the Gaming Control Board reported casino win on the Strip was down 7.6 percent in June. Officials have said that visitors to Las Vegas are spending less, while gamblers also won more than normal at casinos last month.

NOTE: This story was changed to reflect that February recorded a 0.1 percent decline in visitor volume compared to a year ago.