Las Vegas tourism inches up; Nevada gaming win dips slightly

Tourist visits inched upward in August despite a convention attendance decline, and occupancy and average daily room rates also perked up, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Thursday.

On the casino side, Nevada’s gaming win in August dipped slightly compared with last year and Strip win showed the highest decline in the state in a month in which statistics don’t tell the whole story.

The LVCVA reported visitor volume up 1 percent to 3.6 million people compared with a year ago.

A mix of more larger trade shows, but fewer small and midsize meetings resulted in the number of shows being down 24 percent to 994 with attendance off 5.1 percent to 554,319.

Despite the convention decline, midweek occupancy rates were up 1.1 percentage points to 87.2 percent. Overall, occupancy was up 0.9 points to 89.3 percent for the month.

High occupancy rates buoyed the average daily room rate, which increased 6.7 percent to $112.50 for the month.

For the first eight months of 2016, visitor volume is up 1.7 percent to 28.8 million, with convention attendance soaring 11.6 percent to 4.4 million. The number of conventions is up 5.1 percent to 14,109 for eight months and the citywide occupancy rate is up 1.6 points to 89.7 percent.

The average daily room rate has climbed 5 percent to $124.24.

LVCVA officials said an August dip in daily auto traffic on Interstate 15 was in part down because the highway was closed parts of Aug. 16-18 because of a wildfire at Cajon Pass in California.

GAMING WIN DOWN SHARPLY ON STRIP

Separately, the state Gaming Control Board earlier Thursday reported the state won $860.7 million from gamblers, a 5.2 percent decline from August 2015. On the Strip, the decline was even more dramatic — a 14.8 percent drop to $449.6 million for the month.

But the three-month average compiling June, July and August shows the state up 3.8 percent and over 12 months, 1.3 percent. On the Strip, the three-month average climbed 3.6 percent while the 12-month total was flat.

The Boulder Strip had one of the state’s best win increases, up 22.2 percent to $73.6 million. Only South Lake Tahoe was higher at 26.7 percent to $23.9 million.

The state’s August statistics show more declines than increases. In Southern Nevada, win was down 6.8 percent to $724.3 million in Clark County. North Las Vegas was up 12.6 percent to $24.4 million, downtown, 7 percent to $42.8 million, and Laughlin, 2.6 percent to $36.1 million.

The Mesquite market was off 0.2 percent to $8.1 million.

“I don’t like to read too much into one month and for the last three months the Strip has been up 3.6 percent,” said Michael Lawton, senior research analyst for the Control Board’s Tax and License Division.

“This month, the Strip was down $77.8 million and the majority of the decrease was driven by baccarat which was down $53.6 million or 42.3 percent due to softer volumes which were down 18.3 percent or $159.7 million.”

Lawton added that baccarat hold was only 10.2 percent this year compared with 14.5 percent in 2015.

“Based on what we are seeing in baccarat, the choppiness is going to continue, so month to month we are expecting to see a great deal of volatility in that part of the business,” Lawton said.

He also noted that the calendar had two fewer weekend days this August than in 2015.

“That did not help and is the primary reason slots win and volume were down along with non-baccarat table play,” he said. “If you take baccarat out of this month’s equation, the Strip win was down 6.1 percent. If you exclude baccarat volume from the equation, betting volumes — slots and non-baccarat table — were down just 3 percent.”

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.