Las Vegas is still a city reeling after the 2008 financial collapse. Over the course of the last two years, any positive numbers about growth throughout the city, be it in revenue, or in total visitors, can be seen as very good news. Now, midway through 2012, it looks as if Las Vegas is going to be able to keep pace with the projections that stated that they would reach 40 million visitors this year. At the time, that number was thought to be a bit high, with previous years not coming close to the 40 million mark. So far this year, a total of 19.9 3 million visitors have visited the city, which is up a total of 2.5% over the previous year.
During June, the city saw 2.1% growth over the previous year in 2011. However, just because there were more visitors, does not mean that the overall occupancy of the hotels climbed. In fact, many hotels saw their occupancy fall. The overall citywide hotel and motel occupancy for the city was down half a percent, but is remaining flat over the previous year. It will be interesting to see if these numbers go up as the year goes on.
Although compared to the previous year, the occupancy has been down, June’s average daily was up 8.5%, which gives hope to many of the casinos. Although many casinos and hotels have seen their occupancy stayed fairly level over the course of the last year, none of them compare to the levels that they were saying prior to 2008, which is where they are hoping to climb back up toward.
One of the reasons for the uptick in visitors as well as revenues of some casinos is the conventions. Convention attendance in June was up and a .7% when compared to the previous year. A number of different industries have come to the city in recent months, including the International Communications Industries Association, which brought more than 34,000 people into the city overall.
It will be interesting to see if the city as a whole is able to keep these numbers climbing, in an effort to rehabilitate the strip, which was hit hard by the 2008 financial collapse. Since that time, it has been a slow climb back to where we are now, but it does appear to be heading in a positive direction. This will be great not only for the employees in the city, but for individuals throughout the state as a whole.