Las Vegas visitor volume sizzles as Nevada gaming win rises
Visitor volume continued on a torrid pace in September, driven by strong convention business that could reach record levels for the year, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Thursday.
The strong demand boosted the month’s average daily room rate to $137.11, an 8.9 percent increase over September 2015.
State gaming win also inched upward in September as the state Gaming Control Board reported $949 million in winnings, 3.5 percent ahead of the same month a year ago.
Every tourism indicator was higher in September than it was a year ago.
Visitor volume hit 3.7 million, the fourth-best month of the year, and convention attendance was 16.2 percent greater than September 2015 at 614,924. The city benefited by having an extra weekend day in September compared with last year.
For the first nine months of the year, convention attendance is at just more than 5 million. Southern Nevada’s record convention attendance was recorded in 2006 when 6.3 million people attended trade shows, conferences and conventions.
September benefited from the quadrennial MINExpo show, which brought 44,000 attendees and a rotation back to Las Vegas for the Solar Energy Trade Show, which had 18,000 attend. This year’s Global Gaming Expo, attended by 27,000, was staged in September this year, but October last year.
Visitor volume also is on a record pace, with 32.5 million after nine months, 1.8 percent ahead of last year’s record-setting total.
The average daily room rate for the first nine months is sitting at $125.69 a night, well ahead of the 2015 average of $119.94.
Occupancy rates in September also were ahead of last year with citywide occupancy at 92.9 percent, 3 points ahead of last year. Weekend occupancy was at 95.5 percent (1 point better than last year) and motel occupancy, at 80.1 percent, was 8.6 points better than in September 2015.
GAMING WIN RISES
Strip gaming win climbed 7.5 percent to $542.5 million while downtown Las Vegas was up 3.6 percent to $49.2 million.
The three-month total for July through September, a more accurate gauge of win trends, was up 2.8 percent to $2.86 billion statewide, 3.1 percent to $1.6 billion on the Strip and 4.3 percent $133.9 million downtown.
The state collected $63.4 million in taxes in September, a 9.1 percent increase over September 2015, and for the fiscal year that began July 1, the state has collected $228.3 million, a 5.3 percent increase over last year.
Most of the gaming win trends statewide have been higher than last year with the exception of the Boulder Strip, down 3.8 percent, and the Carson Valley area, which includes Carson City, Gardnerville and Minden, off 0.7 percent.
Michael Lawton, senior research analyst for the Gaming Control Board’s tax and license division, said Boulder Strip win is down as a result of the timing slot revenue collections, with September ending on a Friday.
“If you recall last month, the market was significantly up due to the same factor, but it was a positive impact,” Lawton said in an email. “If you combined the two months, the market is down just 1.8 percent in total and slots are down just 0.3 percent. As for the three-month trend, I am not too concerned considering the longer-term trend shows the market is up 1 percent calendar year to date after a 3.8 percent decrease during the last quarter.”
In Clark County, where win was up 3.6 percent to $808.8 million, casinos won $474.6 million, up 2.2 percent, on slot machines and $335.2 million, up 5.8 percent, on table games. The county’s casinos had a 6.8 win percentage on slot machines and a 15.1 percent win percentage on table games in September.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
