Southern Nevada visitor volume down in June

Southern Nevada tourism leaders saw things in June that they rarely see in their tourism statistics — negative percentages.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Thursday reported declines in 15 of the 25 categories it tracks, including visitor volume, which fell 2.3 percent from June 2016 to 3.7 million people.

But the good news about the decline — it was the second-best June on record, topped only by the June 2016 figures.

Earlier in the day, the state Gaming Control Board reported gaming win flat in Clark County and statewide.

Citywide hotel and motel occupancy was off 0.9 percentage points to 92.6 percent for the month, but the average daily room rate inched up 0.2 percent to $121.47 a night.

Convention attendance was off 2.4 percent to 454,975 as a result of a decline in the number of small meetings staged in Las Vegas. There were 17.2 percent fewer meetings — 1,323 — than there were last June.

For the first six months of 2017, visitor volume is running flat at 21.2 million tourists. While occupancy is flat at 89.6 percent, the average daily room rate is up 4.1 percent to $132.38. Convention attendance is up 2.1 percent to 3.6 million for the first half of 2017.

On the gaming side, win inched up just 0.3 percent in Clark County in June, the Control Board reported.

Statewide, win was up 0.9 percent to $895.4 million for the month over last year while Clark County win moved up 0.3 percent to $764.3 million. The Las Vegas Strip’s win increased over June 2016 by 1.6 percent to $497 million.

Even the super-heated downtown Las Vegas market that had been reporting double-digit percentage increases in win over the past year didn’t hit lofty levels, increasing 8.7 percent to $46 million.

The three-month win average — usually a more reliable gauge of performance because it accounts for high and low months resulting from report timing anomalies — showed state win up 1.9 percent for April, May and June. The three-month averages also showed Clark County up 1.8 percent, the Strip up 0.5 percent and downtown soaring 13.2 percent for the period.

The Control Board also announced 12-month totals on Thursday to mark the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year.

Over the past year of reporting, the state’s casino win was up 2.9 percent to $11.4 billion. Clark County win was up 3 percent to $9.9 billion for the year, the Strip went up 2.9 percent to $6.5 billion and downtown Las Vegas ended 10.7 percent higher than the previous year with $608.7 million in winnings.

Of the state’s 15 studied markets, only two had win declines for the fiscal year compared with the previous 12 months. North Shore Lake Tahoe was off 2.5 percent to $25.3 million while the Boulder Strip declined 0.5 percent to $793.9 million. The Boulder Strip downturn was attributed to an 8.4 percent decline in table-game win that was somewhat offset by a 0.7 percent increase in slot-machine win.

Table win was off in nine of the 15 markets statewide during the 2016-17 fiscal year, but slot win was up in every market except North Shore Lake Tahoe.

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