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Strip Posts Strong Memorial Day Visitor Numbers30 May 2001LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- May 30, 2001 -- As reported by the Associated Press: `` While a record number of visitors descended on the Las Vegas Strip over Memorial Day weekend, growth in the number of tourists flocking to the glittering megaresorts has slowed down, industry experts say. ``The projected number of 274,000 visitors was up from 270,000 for Memorial Day weekend 2000, a 1.5 percent increase, said a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. ``Comparatively, in 1999, approximately 248,000 visitors came to gamble, dine and shop over the three-day holiday at a nearly 9 percent rate of growth. Actual figures from the hotel-casinos will not be available for about a month. ```The destination is constantly evolving, so the past several years we have achieved greater visitation on key weekends,’ said Kevin Bagger, senior research analyst for the visitors authority. ``…For the first three months in 2001, the overall number of visitors was up .8 percent, according to visitors authority figures. That's compared to 2000, when the city saw a nearly 9 percent increase in visitors during the same time period. ``…The slowdown is being attributed to the lack of new hotel-casino openings compared to last two years when four new megaresorts opened on the Strip. ``…`We found demand for weekend was really strong,' said Jenn Michaels, spokeswoman for MGM MIRAGE, which owns the MGM Grand, Bellagio, New York-New York, Mirage and Treasure Island hotel-casinos among others..." |