Strong convention lineup pushes visitation to best April ever
A strong convention calendar translated into the best April for visitation ever recorded, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Friday.
The agency that markets the city to the world said 3.5 million visitors were in Southern Nevada in April, a 2.4 percent increase over the same month a year ago, the largest monthly percentage increase of the year.
The April total bested the previous record high for the month, which occurred in 2014.
Convention attendance helped make the difference. The authority recorded a 26.8 percent increase in convention visitors to 501,392 people.
There were fewer conventions staged in the city in April — 1,780 compared with 1,867 a year ago — but two major shows that weren’t in Las Vegas in 2014 were here and two others switched dates from March to April.
The Nightclub and Bar show, which brought 37,000 people to the city, and CinemaCon, 6,000 people, moved dates from March to April.
The International Sign Association (19,500 delegates) and the International Carwash Association (6,800) rotated to Las Vegas from other locations this year.
The average daily room rate inched up 1.7 percent in April to $118.51. The average rate went up as a result of Strip rates climbing 2.3 percent to $127.77 while downtown rates fell 21.1 percent to $56.30 a night.
Citywide occupancy was off 1 percentage point for the month to 88.8 percent.
All but one occupancy category — motels — was down from where it was in April 2015. Motel occupancy was up 0.2 points to 67.2 percent. But every other occupancy category was down, hotels 1.2 points to 91.1 percent, weekends 0.2 points to 95.8 percent, midweek, 1.2 points to 86.3 percent, the Strip, 1.5 points to 90.3 percent and downtown, 0.5 points to 82.3 percent.
The region’s strong April performance bumped 2015 totals ahead of 2014’s record visitation pace. For the first four months of 2015, visitation is up 0.4 percent to 13.7 million people. Convention attendance also is up for the year, 6.7 percent to 2.3 million.
The authority’s visitation results come off the heels of growth in passenger statistics at McCarran International Airport, which rose 4.4 percent to 3.8 million, and Clark County gaming revenue, which was up 5.5 percent to $783.2 million.
In outlying Clark County communities, visitor volume dived in Laughlin and stood pat in Mesquite. Laughlin visitation fell 11.6 percent to 161,995 while Mesquite’s was up 0.2 percent to 113,976.
Other tourism indicators were sluggish in those cities. The average daily room rate was up 1.3 percent to $52.10 in Laughlin, and up 3.6 percent to $58.21 in Mesquite.
Occupancy rates were down 1.5 percentage points to 65.4 percent in Laughlin and down 1.7 points to 84.5 percent in Mesquite.
Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find @RickVelotta on Twitter.
