Greeters and drivers wait Thursday for arrivals at McCarran International Airport to shuttle them to hotels. About 300,000 visitors are expected for the holiday weekend. Photo by John Locher.

The scene Thursday at McCarran International Airport was reminiscent of this summer's surprise hit motion picture "March of the Penguins."

One by one they lined up, dressed penguinlike in their black-and-white tuxedos. Dozens of limousine drivers from resorts such as Bellagio, Tropicana and The Hotel at Mandalay Bay, each awaiting their turn to ferry incoming visitors to their Las Vegas playground of choice.

Unlike the movie, actor Morgan Freeman wasn't on hand to narrate.

But his absence in no way means this New Year's Eve in Las Vegas will not become a blockbuster.

"They tell me it's supposed to be busy," Gene Sherow, a driver with Bell Transportation, said with a smile as he stood outside the airport awaiting his next fare.

Things have been slow this month, Sherow added. But he is eagerly anticipating the cash he will rake in during his first New Year's holiday as a Las Vegas limo driver.

Sherow's sense of pending spending isn't unique. Across the valley, businesses from hotels to restaurants, nightclubs to stores can't want for the pre-2006 party to get under way.

Robert Frey, owner of the Pure nightclub at Caesars Palace, said New Year's Eve brings out the biggest of big spenders.

"Each of our tables goes between $5,000 to $10,000," Frey said. "Supply and demand creates limits. We have 88 tables, and they're sold out. If we had 188 tables, we would have sold them, too."

Pure sold out 3,000 New Year's Eve party tickets, which do nothing but get patrons in the door, at $250 a pop.

The club will mark its one-year anniversary Saturday, an occasion Frey and company will mark with socialite Nicky Hilton and her boyfriend, Kevin Connolly of the HBO series "Entourage."

"We've purchased one of the five largest bottles of Cristal ever made," Frey said, referring to a 15-liter champagne behemoth created for the recent millennium celebration.

Hilton plans to pop the cork at midnight, proving stars and businessmen are not above Las Vegas' freewheeling charms on Dec. 31.

"There's no other night like this," Frey said.

Hotel room rates have skyrocketed this weekend as travelers clamor to get in on the action, and other celebrity events abound, including rapper Kanye West's Saturday concert at the Aladdin and Kid Rock's set behind the turntables at Jet, The Mirage's new nightclub.

Approximately 300,000 visitors are expected in town each day this weekend, up 2.4 percent from last year's level, John Piet, senior research director with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said Thursday.

The city's 134,000 guest rooms will be 98 percent occupied, with visitors' nongaming economic effect projected at $187 million.

Last year, the city had 293,000 visitors per day over New Year's weekend, which kicked off with a Friday observance of the federal holiday.

Local guest rooms were 97.8 percent occupied, and visitors spent $176.1 million on nongaming goods and services, Piet said.

The weekend guests include Brian and Eve Richard, who left their suburban Detroit home early Thursday to start their first Las Vegas vacation.

Asked why they chose to spend New Year's in Las Vegas, Brian Richard said, "It's warmer than where we're from."

Before they fly home Sunday, the Richards said they will see some shows, gamble a bit and check out the local nightclub scene. And on Saturday night, they will be among the mass of revelers who will ring in 2006 watching fireworks above the Strip.

Another young couple from the Midwest, identified only as Greg and Jennifer, arrived Thursday from St. Louis to celebrate Greg's 21st birthday earlier this month and Jennifer's recent graduation from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Jennifer, 22, said she wants to enjoy the city's many sights. But Greg's goals for New Year's weekend didn't exactly coincide.

"I couldn't care less about seeing things," he said. "I just want to gamble and get drunk."

But both plan to be outdoors on the Strip at midnight Saturday.