March tourism second-best ever with 3.6 million visitors
By all accounts, March was a terrific month for tourism in Las Vegas.
In fact, it was the second-best March ever.
Yet visitation was down 1.7 percent to 3.6 million people last month compared with a year ago.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Wednesday that 2014’s best-ever March performance, fueled by the appearance of the triennial ConExpo-Con/Agg construction trade show, was too tough to match this year. As a result, a number of visitation statistics for March showed double-digit percentage declines in a number of categories, including convention attendance, meetings held, revenue per available room and downtown average daily room rates.
It was the first decline in year-over-year visitation numbers by month since December 2013.
In March, convention attendance fell 11.7 percent to 551,793 and the number of shows conducted was down 11 percent to 2,156.
Room rates are driven by demand so when demand is strong, the rate climbs.
Revenue per available room was off 12.9 percent to $107.10 and the downtown room rate average fell 24.9 percent to $62.20. Room rates on the Strip fell 9.4 percent to $130.35 and overall, rates were down 9.7 percent to $120.88.
Occupancy rates were down in every category.
Overall occupancy fell 3.2 percentage points to 88.6 percent. The category impacted the most was downtown occupancy, down 3.9 points to 83 percent, followed by midweek occupancy, down 3.6 points to 86.1 percent and hotel occupancy, down 3.5 points to 90.2 percent.
Strip occupancy fell 3.2 points to 90 percent, weekend occupancy was down 1.3 points to 95.6 percent and motel occupancy was off 1 point to 73.4 percent.
The only indicators that were in positive ground were the transportation categories.
Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport was up 1.8 percent to 3.8 million and average daily high traffic was up 6.5 percent to 43,121 vehicles at Interstate 15’s California border and up 6.3 percent to 110,584 vehicles on all highways.
Airport passenger traffic and highway traffic blend tourists with local residents.
March’s declines put a dent in year-to-date numbers and in the first quarter of the year, visitor volume is flat at 10.2 million, just off 2014’s record pace when 41.1 million people visited the city.
The pivotal event for the declines was the ConExpo-Con/Agg trade show, the largest Las Vegas hosts by square footage. It next arrives in March 2017 and occurs once every three years.
In 2014, the show drew 130,000 people to the city. When it is arrives, hundreds of cranes and other equipment fill the parking lots in addition to the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center.Mesquite and Laughlin also showed declines in March.
Laughlin visitation was off 11.8 percent to 174,098 visitors for the month, but the average daily room rate was up 1.5 percent to $42.06, while occupancy was down 1.5 points 68.7 percent.
In Mesquite, visitor volume fell 0.5 percent to 122,793 with the average daily room rate down 2.9 percent to $53.91 and the occupancy rate off 2.4 points to 88.1 percent.
Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find @RickVelotta on Twitter.
