After posting record visitor numbers for each of the previous three years, Las Vegas now reportedly looks unlikely to continue this trend into a fourth consecutive year with guest figures to the end of September tracking at around 1.1% below where they were in 2016.
According to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper citing official figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the Nevada city attracted almost 32.11 million visitors for the nine months to the end of September but that this was some 360,578 below the tally for the same three-quarter period in 2016.
If this current trend continues, the newspaper reported that Las Vegas could end the year having welcomed approximately 42.4 million visitors, which would be above the 42.3 million seen in 2015 but below the 42.9 million received for the entirety of last year.
On the good side, the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted that the average daily room price for the nine-month period had increased by 3.9% year-on-year to $130.56 while occupancy rates had grown by 0.1% to reach 90.2% despite a 0.6% drop off in the motel?sector to 73.6%.
In addition, the newspaper reported that convention visitor attendance for the nine-month period was up by 2.1% year-on-year to 5.1 million and could better last year’s record of 6.3 million despite a 5.1% decline in the total number of shows to 15,166.
However, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority do not cover the period following the October 1 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip that left 58 people dead and injured a further 546. It explained that Penn National Gaming Incorporated revealed that cancellations at its Tropicana Las Vegas property had grown by 30% since the tragedy while detailing that Caesars Entertainment Corporation, which owns ten properties in southern Nevada including the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino and the nearby Flamingo Las Vegas, had subsequently experienced a ‘dip’ in the numbers of players visiting from Asia.