May 2015 proved to be a tough act to followin Las Vegas.
May 2016 visitation and gaming numbers were down significantly from a year ago, mostly due to two large events slated last year and an extra weekend.
Those events were the long-awaited title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, which Mayweather won on a controversial decision after Pacquiao fought the entire fight with a sore shoulder and largely was ineffective in the fight that produced more hype than fight.
A year ago, the revolving Rock in Rio festival also was held in Las Vegas in May, and those two events made it the best May in years in Las Vegas.
While those events helped make May 2015 a large success, so did the five weekends that occurred last year.
That extra weekend, along with the two large events, made it virtually impossible for Las Vegas and Nevada to challenge the May 2015 numbers, resulting in the first down month more than a year in Las Vegas and statewide.
This year, May saw 3.6 million visitors for the month, down by 3.9 percent from a year ago. It was the first visitor decline in 14 months.
Room occupancy rates also were down by 3.2 percent with an 88 percent occupancy rate, and convention attendance was down by 1.2 percent, with 428,031 convention attendees in May, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
The average daily room rate in May was $123.73, down 5.8 percent from a year earlier.
On the Las Vegas Strip, the occupancy rate was down 5.9 percent, at $132.60, while Downtown Las Vegas hotels averaged $60.57, down by 5.2 percent.
Lower occupancy visitation and occupancy rates also reduced the statewide gaming take.
Nevada casinos won $958 million in May, down from more than $1 billion a year earlier.
On the Las Vegas Strip, casinos generated $531 million in gaming revenues, down about 12 percent.
Downtown Las Vegas casinos, however bucked the trend and reported $50 million in winnings, up 13 percent, while casinos on the Boulder Strip reported $78 million in winnings, up 26 percent, and North Las Vegas casinos reported $27 million in winnings, up 28 percent.
Reno reported $50 million in winnings, down 5 percent, and South Lake Tahoe $14 million, down 15 percent.
