Las Vegas visitation rises slightly in August

Visitation to Las Vegas rose slightly in August, helping the city stay on track toward its year-end goal of 40 million visitors.

Total visitor volume for August was up 1.5 percent from the same month in 2011, according to the monthly Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority count released Wednesday. In all, 3.34 million tourists came to Las Vegas in August, up from August 2011’s 3.29 million total. Year to date, 26.7 million people have visited the city, up 1.8 percent from the same point in 2011.

August’s citywide hotel and motel occupancy combined decreased ever so slightly, from 84.1 percent in 2011 to 84.0 percent in 2012. Year-to-date it declined from 85.2 percent in 2011 to 85.1 percent in 2012.

When looking at just hotels, occupancy decreased month-over-month to 87.7 percent in 2012 from 88.5 percent in 2011. Year-to-date, hotel occupancy rose by 0.3 percentage points to 88.4 percent from 88.1 percent in 2011. Motel occupancy’s year-to-date count dropped 3.4 points to 55.8 percent from 2011’s
59.3 percent.

Weekend stays in August were down to 90.9 percent from 2011’s 91.1 percent, and midweek occupancy was down 0.6 point to 81.1 percent from 2011’s 81.7 percent. Overall, Las Vegas had 3.91 million occupied hotel-room nights in August, up 0.6 percent from 2011’s 3.89 million.

If you think you paid more this year for a Las Vegas room than in 2011, you probably did. August’s average daily room rate was up 5.1 percent to $102.09 from $97.11 in 2011. Year-to-date, the average daily rate rose 3.6 percent from $103.65 in 2011 to $107.36 in 2012.

Convention halls in August, too, were more crowded than in 2011. August’s convention attendance jumped 15.9 percent to 478,522 people from 2011’s total of 412,902. Year-to-date, the figure is up a modest 2.3 percent to 3.52 million from 2011’s 3.44 million. Total conventions and meetings held in August were up
17.3 percent to 1,236 from 1,054 in 2011.

The Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority is citing two reasons for the August convention attendance bump. The addition of DeafNation World Expo brought 23,000 attendees, and the Orgill Fall Dealer Market, which was away for five years, attracted 15,000 attendees.

Year-to-date, the total number of conventions and meetings held has leaped to 13,692, up 16.3 percent over 2011’s 11,776 number.

And if you noticed traffic is a little heavier, you’re right again.

The average daily number of vehicles coming into Las Vegas rose in August, 2.2 percent from 107,602 a year ago to 110,020 in 2012. The number coming from Southern California on Interstate 15 was up 6.4 percent to 49,340 vehicles from 46,387. Vehicle counts include visitor, resident and commercial traffic.

Union Gaming’s analysts noted that the August numbers continue to suggest that “while visitation is rising, customer mix remains challenged. This is reflective in the recent visitor numbers where we have seen an increase in drive-in traffic, but weaker air passengers into the market.”

Elsewhere in Clark County, the number of Laughlin visitors fell 5.9 percent, while Mesquite visitation dropped
2.1 percent.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at
lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588.