Las Vegas visitor volume increases for the eighth straight month

Las Vegas grew visitor numbers by 0.9 percent in April, the eighth straight monthly increase.

But even with the steady rise, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is not ready to declare an end to the economic crisis that has gripped the tourism industry.

"We need to see positive movement across all the key metrics we follow," convention authority research manager Kris Tibbs said Wednesday. "What we're seeing is certainly a good sign, but realistically, we need to see the metrics move in the right direction for consecutive months.

According to the convention authority, Las Vegas attracted 3,199,541 visitors in April, compared with 3,171,043 visitors in April 2009.

For the first four months of 2010, almost 12.2 million people have visited Las Vegas, an increase of 1.3 percent compared with the first four months of 2009.

Convention attendance grew 2.9 percent in April with 426,697 business meeting delegates coming to Las Vegas, the second straight monthly increase in convention attendance. For the first four months of the year, convention attendance is down 5.9 percent.

The average daily room rate in Las Vegas during April was $96.87, up 3 percent from April 2009. Although the figure was significantly lower than average daily room rates achieved in 2007 and 2008, Tibbs said the number seems to have stabilized.

Las Vegas had an overall hotel occupancy of 84 percent in April and room occupancy is at 79.3 percent for the first four months of the year. The city is also operating about 8,300 more hotel rooms than it did in April 2009, a 6 percent increase.

Tibbs said Las Vegas has a room occupancy 25 percent higher than the national average, which is a good sign for the market.

Still, spending levels by visitors are down compared with previous years.

"That's a key metric we follow," Tibbs said. "We see that people still want to come to Las Vegas, but they are still not spending what they had in the past."

While Las Vegas has remained on a positive climb, visitor volume in Clark County's rural markets of Laughlin and Mesquite continued to decline. Mesquite visitation is down almost 14 percent for 2010 while Laughlin visitation is off 7.2 percent.

Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871.