February saw fewer tourists come to Las Vegas than the year before? and that hasn’t happened since last fall.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported declines in nearly every statistical visitation category, with visitor volume in Southern Nevada down 5.5 percent to 3.1 million people. It was the first year-over-year decline since October and the steepest drop since a 6.3 percent drop in June 2009.
The comparison isn’t entirely fair, though, as 2016 was a leap year, meaning February had an extra day that wasn’t on the 2017 calendar. It didn’t help either that the number of conventions and meetings was down 23.1 percent to 1,797 for the month.
Not surprisingly, Las Vegas saw year-on-year dips in occupancy, average daily room rates and revenue per available room.
Citywide occupancy fell 1.7 percentage points to 85.5 percent for the month and ADR dropped 2.5 percent to $118.66 a night. Strip room rates were off 2.8 percent to $127.75. Downtown fell 7.9 percent to $57.51.
Gaming revenue also felt the absence of the extra day in February. The total statewide of $945.6 million was down 4.5 percent from February 2016, according to figures compiled by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Clark County was down 4.3 percent to $825.9 million. The Las Vegas Strip was off 5 percent to $541.9 million.
Downtown Las Vegas held its own, however. Win stayed in positive territory in February, up 2.2 percent to $51.7 million.
