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Las Vegas Tourism Still Lagging

Chris Jones

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas recently enjoyed its best September in three years, but the city's tourism industry continues to lag behind its peak level set in 2000.

Nearly 2.85 million people visited in September, up 3.5 percent from the 2.75 million reported during the same month a year ago, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said Wednesday.

The recent monthly total was 3.4 percent below 2000's reported 2.95 million September visitors, illustrating continued improvement in the local tourism industry following a worldwide travel slump caused by poor economic conditions and compounded by the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Las Vegas' recent growth is further supported by its year-to-date visitor total. Through September, 26.8 million people traveled here this year. That is up marginally from last year's 26.6 million total and is less than 1 percent below the reported 27 million visitors over the first nine months of 2000.

Las Vegas' best year for tourism was 2000, when 36.8 million visitors were reported.

Figures from late 2001 were severely disrupted by the Sept. 11 attacks and do not offer a reliable gauge of the local travel industry at that time.

Occupancy rates in Las Vegas hotels reached 82.9 percent this September, up 2.8 percentage points. In addition, the city's average hotel room rate was $80.66 per night, well above the $76.03 average area hotels and motels charged a year ago.

Year-to-date, the city's room rate average is $82.20 per night, up from $76.12 a year ago.

September convention attendance was up 6.3 percent to 271,213 visitors, which added more than $314 million to the local economy during the month. Year-to-date, nearly 4.5 million conventioneers have spent an estimated $5.15 billion toward nongaming purchases in Southern Nevada.

Laughlin reported 328,628 September visitors, up less than 1 percent from a year ago. Through September, the Colorado River resort town's 3.25 million visitor total was down 1.6 percent.

Mesquite has enjoyed strong growth this year, however. Its 127,609 September visitors was a 10.5 percent jump from last year, while its nine-month total of 1.3 million visitors was up 10.4 percent.

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