Visitation to Southern Nevada fell for the third month in a row in August, but it didn’t hold back McCarran International Airport from posting its sixth consecutive 4 million passenger month.
Figures released by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority show the number of visitors fell by 2 percent to 3.56 million against a tough August 2016 comp.
Hotel occupancy was down slightly as a result, but the average daily room rate was up 4.2 percent for the month to $129.44, driven by a 2.5 increase in convention attendance to 567,951.
While visitation trails last year’s pace by a slight margin (minus-0.9 percent) through the first eight months, the average daily room rate is up 4.2 percent to $129.44, and the citywide occupancy rate is up 0.9 percentage points to 90.1 percent.
In a further positive sign for the region, convention attendance for 2017 to date is up by 6.2 percent compared with last year.
And following August’s 3.6 percent bump in travelers passing through McCarran?4.24 million in all?the nation’s eighth-busiest airport has recorded 32.34 million passengers through August and is on track to break the annual record of 47.8 million set in 2007.
Domestic travel carried the August results, up 4 percent year on year, offsetting flatness in international arrivals and departures (minus-0.3 percent).
