El Grito tourists flocking to Las Vegas this week
Break out the party hats — 5,800 revelers are coming to Las Vegas from Mexico for the El Grito weekend and Mexican Independence Day.
Through Saturday, 42 commercial flights and 17 additional charter flights will arrive at McCarran International Airport with an influx of visitors expected to spend an average $1,073 on nongaming purchases on their international trips.
“Each September our team at McCarran looks forward to the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend,” Clark County Aviation Director Rosemary Vassiliadis said in a release. “The large number of scheduled and chartered flights provides the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the operational capabilities of Terminal 3 and our world-class customer service.”
In addition to arrivals from Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexican air carriers AeroMexico, Interjet, Magnicharters and Volaris have added 17 charter flights on Friday, including nonstop service from six cities that don’t normally have direct Las Vegas service.
Visitation from Mexico has spiked 93 percent over the last four years and the city received 3.2 million Latin American arrivals in 2013.
Air capacity from Mexico increased 20 percent over the last year.
