Visitor volume rises again in March

Visitor volume to Las Vegas continued to grow in March, but local travel and tourism officials remain cautious about pronouncing an end to the city's leisure-sector downturn.

Las Vegas welcomed 3.22 million tourists in the month, up 0.7 percent from March 2009, according to new numbers from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. It's the seventh straight month of increased or flat visitor volumes, following a 15-month string of declines that began in May 2008.

Year to date through March, visitor counts are up 1.5 percent, to 8.96 million people, compared with 8.83 million travelers in the same three months of 2009.

"I think we're seeing some movement in a positive direction, and looking at March numbers compared to February numbers, we do see a few more positive year-over-year changes," said Kris Tibbs, the authority's research manager. "But the broader economy still faces some challenges, such as a higher unemployment rate and lower consumer confidence."

Brian Gordon, a principal in local research and consulting firm Applied Analysis, said the new numbers are welcome, but they don't tell a tale of full recovery.

"We have more room inventory than we had previously, so companies are still struggling to keep pace with where they were (at the peak), and consumers overall are spending less," Gordon said. "It's a positive sign that we still have more than 3 million visitors coming to Las Vegas during March, but it's too early to suggest that conditions are back to where they were before the recession."

Gordon said he'd need to see noticeable jumps in both visitor volume and consumer spending before he would conclude that the market had turned a corner. He added that he expects visitor counts to stay in a "relatively tight range" through 2010. An uptick in leisure travel on weekends and holidays, as well as a boost in business travel, could force upward movement in room rates by the end of the year, he said.

March's gains also benefit from comparison to the low numbers posted during a severe economic downturn. Despite the improvements, visitor numbers have stayed well below prerecession levels. In March 2007, for example, the market attracted 3.45 million tourists -- 230,000 more travelers than the city hosted in March 2010.

Through 2010, Las Vegas will attract 37.4 million visitors, according to authority forecasts. That tally would bring the city back to 2008 tourism levels.

The latest numbers also continue to show the effect CityCenter is having on the market's occupancy levels.

The marketwide room-occupancy rate was 82.4 percent in March, down from 85.9 percent a year earlier. But thanks to CityCenter, the market's room count jumped to 148,891 units, up 5.5 percent from 141,119 rooms in March 2009.

Tibbs called the occupancy results "fairly encouraging." Even with the addition of nearly 8,000 rooms, the market's year-to-date occupancy rate of 77.7 percent is well above the U.S. average of 51.9 percent.

The average daily room rate in March was $93.23, up from $92.46 in March 2009.

Convention attendance increased to 470,005 participants, up 5.2 percent from 446,588 people a year earlier. Based on feedback from resort operators, strong advance convention bookings in late 2010 and 2011 should make for "strong" attendance numbers going forward, Tibbs said.

Average daily car traffic into Las Vegas also surged 6.1 percent year over year in March, Tibbs noted. It's the 12th straight month of auto-traffic gains.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.