Las Vegas notches 13th month of visitation increases on convention strength

Las Vegas saw yet another boost in visitation in March, thanks to a lift in convention attendance, according to numbers released today.

The number of visitors for the month increased 5.6 percent from 3.22 million in March 2010 to 3.4 million this past March, according to a monthly report from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. March marks the 13th consecutive month of visitation increases in Las Vegas.

Convention attendance during the year-over-year period increased 10.3 percent, helped by the return of the triennial ConExpo-Con/Agg tradeshow, which had about 125,000 in attendance. Convention attendance in Las Vegas for the month totaled more than 518,500 attendees.

Citywide hotel occupancy increased 4.8 percentage points from 82.4 percent last March to 87.2 percent in March 2011. Average daily room rates surged 19.2 percent from $93.23 to $111.13 in the past year.

After three months of declines, gaming revenue on the Strip increased 12.8 percent from $467 million in March 2010 to $527.3 million in March 2011. In Clark County, gaming revenue increased 7.2 percent from $779.5 million to $835.7 million.

Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport was up 2.2 percent, but vehicle traffic on Interstate 15 at the Nevada/California line was down 4.2 percent in March.

Visitor volume to Laughlin fell 3.4 percent from March 2010 to March 2011, while the number of visitors increased 4.4 percent in Mesquite.

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