Visitor numbers saw healthy June increase

Midway through 2012, Las Vegas is keeping pace with early projections of 40 million visitors this year.

Year to date, 19.93 million people have visited the city, up 2.4 percent from 2011's 19.47 million year-to-date total.

Total visitor volume for June was up 2.1 percent from the same month in 2011, according to the monthly Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority count. In all, 3.39 million tourists came to Las Vegas in June, up from 3.32 million in June 2011.

June's citywide hotel and motel occupancy combined decreased 0.5 percent, while year-to-date the count stayed flat.

When looking only at hotels, occupancy increased month-over-month by a slim 0.1 percent, while motel occupancy's prior-year comparison dropped 6.3 percent.

Weekend stays in June were down 2.4 percent from 2011, and midweek occupancy also was down 0.4 percent. Overall, Las Vegas had 3.97 million occupied hotel-room nights in June, up 0.7 percent from 2011.

Even though occupancy overall was weak in the prior-year comparisons, June's average daily room rate was up 8.5 percent, to $109.75 from $101.15 in 2011. Year-to-date, the average daily rate rose a more modest 4.3 percent, from $105.53 in 2011 to $110.04 in 2012.

Convention attendance in June was up 0.7 percent in prior-year comparisons, to 370,332 from 367,712 in 2011. The convention authority cited the rotation of the International Communications Industries Association with 34,000 attendees as the reason for the increase. Total conventions and meetings held were up a whopping 15.8 percent to 1,682 from 1,453 in June 2011.

Year-to-date, the total number of conventions and meetings held has jumped to 11,140, up 20.3 percent over 2011's 9,258 figure.

The average daily number of vehicles coming into Las Vegas also rose in June, 2.5 percent from 109,990 a year ago to 107,273 in 2012. The number coming from Southern California on Interstate 15 was up 7.5 percent to 47,650 vehicles from 44,3333. Note that vehicle counts include visitor, resident and commercial traffic.

Elsewhere in Clark County, the number of Laughlin visitors fell 5.7 percent, to 179,955 from 190,801 in June 2011. Mesquite visitation was up 6.9 percent, to 90,430 from June 2011's 84,593.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588.