Las Vegas visitation down slightly in October

Year-to-date, visitation is down 0.3 percent to 33.47 million people, compared to the 33.58 million who visited during the same time period in 2012, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s monthly count released Wednesday. Month-over-month, October’s visitation was down 1.4 percent to 3.47 million visitors compared to 3.52 million in October 2012.

Citywide occupancy is flat at 85.6 percent year-to-date compared to 85.7 percent in 2012.

Hotel occupancy, specifically, is down slightly to 88.4 percent from 2012’s 88.8 percent. Motel occupancy was up at 60.1 percent, compared with last year’s 58.5 percent.

Total year-over-year weekend occupancy was up to 92.1 percent compared with 2012’s 91.8 percent; weekday stays were down at 82.8 percent from last year’s 83.1 percent through October.

Strip occupancy was down slightly year-to-date at 88.1 percent compared to 2012’s 88.5 percent, while downtown’s year-over-year occupancy is down from 2012’s 77.2 percent to 75.7 percent through October.

Room prices dipped a bit last month, with the average daily room rate at $115.54, down from October 2012’s $117.70. Year-to-date, the average daily room rate is $111.52, up from last year’s $108.97. On the Strip, the average daily rate dipped 1 percent month-over-month to $124.96 from October 2012’s $126.19. Year-over-year Strip rates are up 2.4 percent to $120.16 from $117.32 in 2012.

Downtown, average daily rates were up 3 percent in October to $82.74 from $80.36 last year. Year-to-date, the rate is up 6.8 percent to $69.40 from $65 in 2012.

Convention attendance in October totaled 521,400, up 9.3 percent from 477,248 in 2012. The number of conventions and meetings was down a whopping 14 percent to 2,581 events from 3,001 in October 2012. Year-over-year, convention attendance is up 4 percent to 4.54 million from 2012’s 4.36 million. The number of events is up, 3.1 percent, to 19,149 from 18,577.

The average daily number of vehicles coming into Las Vegas was 97,226 in October, up from 94,583 a year ago. The number coming from Southern California on Interstate 15 fell 0.9 percent to 38,060 from 38,387 a year ago.

The number of Laughlin visitors was up 1.9 percent in October, while Mesquite visitation was up 6.3 percent in month-over-month comparisons.

Year-to-date, Laughlin’s visitor count was down 1.5 percent, to 1.77 million from 2012’s 1.79 million total. Mesquite’s was down 0.4 percent, to 860,904 from 864,750 in 2012.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.