LV visitor count rises to 39.2 million people in 2007

A record 39.2 million people opened their wallets for a Las Vegas visit in 2007, filling more than 90 percent of the resort capital's hotel rooms and leaving behind nearly $11 billion in gambling losses.

The record numbers created a buzz among Sin City's tourism boosters but the economic hangover of America's home real estate crash and a global credit crunch could cause headaches in 2008 when more than 9,000 new hotel rooms are scheduled to open for business.

The figures were included in a report released Tuesday by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the agency tracking visits to the nation's pleasure capital.

According to the report, Las Vegas visitation was up by about 300,000 people, roughly equivalent to the population of Toledo, Ohio.

The average amount they spent per night for a hotel room jumped more than 10 percent to $132, the fifth-highest rate in the country.

The number of visitors rose compared with 2006 despite an increase of just 342 in the number of available hotel rooms. And visitation managed to increase slightly in December even as the number of passengers flying into and out of McCarran International Airport fell 3.2 percent.

That means Las Vegas is staying afloat in the nation's rough fiscal waters so far, but operators of Sin City's biggest resorts are bracing for stormy weather in 2008.

"We are seeing a lot of softening in the economy," said Chuck Bowling, a tourism authority board member and executive vice president of sales, channel marketing and distribution at MGM Mirage, a company with 10 hotel-casinos on the Strip including MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage and Luxor.

Bowling said spending on conventions and trade shows -- which declined 1.6 percent in 2007, the first decline in that category since a 6.8 percent decrease in 1998 -- could continue to stagnate in 2008.

That's because spending on travel and events could be a target for nervous executives looking to keep company bottom lines in the black during the economic downturn.

"Some of their budgets are being trimmed," Bowling said. "They are still coming, but they are (tightening) their belts."

Kevin Bagger, the authority's director of Internet marketing and research, blamed the convention decrease on scheduling quirks. He said shows such as a convention that attracts 40,000 dentists and another that draws 50,000 hardware sellers weren't in Las Vegas in 2007 but will be back in the future.

"Sometimes that works in Las Vegas' favor," he said of shows that move in and out of Southern Nevada. "Other years, there is a different mix of shows."

The figures presented Tuesday showed the amount of money conventioneers spent in Las Vegas in 2007 managed to increase 3.3 percent to $8.4 billion plus whatever they lost gambling in casinos.

Tourism authority board President and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a notoriously peppy booster of the local economy, echoed Bowling's concern.

After praising the strides forward in 2007 such as a room occupancy rate more than 27 percent higher than the national average, Goodman urged the tourism group to press even harder to lure visitors in 2008.

"That formula works," Goodman said of the agency's intense marketing of Las Vegas. "Anybody who suggests that we tinker with it ... is really committing a sin."

His comments sounded like a response to calls last year from Gov. Jim Gibbons and leaders of Las Vegas Sands Corp. to divert money from the tourism agency to avert a state budget shortfall.

"Don't let people pick us apart," Goodman said.

The possibility of dark clouds on the horizon didn't stop Nevada's tourism titans from looking back fondly on 2007.

Bagger noted that casinos in Clark County managed to haul in more money than those in Macau, an emerging gambling giant in southeast China.

"We are our own toughest competition," Bagger said. "We have to beat ourselves year after year."

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or (702) 477-3861.