John Locher / AP
In this Sept. 16, 2014, photo taken with a slow-shutter speed, lights of cars blur along Las Vegas Boulevard.
Friday, Sept. 2, 2016 | 5 p.m.
Las Vegas is a hot ticket among travelers on a Labor Day weekend that will be typically toasty, Las Vegas tourism industry experts and meteorologists say.
More than 307,000 visitors are expected in the valley Friday through Monday — 2,000 more than during the same weekend in 2015, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokeswoman Amanda Arentsen said. That compares with an estimated 318,000 visitors over Memorial Day weekend, 307,000 over the July 4 weekend and 332,000 over New Year’s Eve and early New Year’s Day, according to the LVCVA.
National travel-booking website Orbitz reported that Las Vegas is its most-booked destination among its customers this weekend, ahead of Los Angeles, Chicago and San Diego. The average Orbitz flight booked to the valley cost $322 this weekend, and the average hotel room rate was $144. Priceline.com, another national site, said Las Vegas ranked No. 2 among its customer destinations for this weekend, behind only New York City and ahead of New Orleans, San Diego and Miami.
The high temperature in Las Vegas will reach 98 degrees Saturday, 91 on Sunday and 90 on Monday, National Weather Service meteorologist Caleb Steele said.
Spokeswoman Christine Crews estimated that 753,000 passengers will travel in and out of McCarran International Airport from Thursday through Tuesday — 4.8 percent more than over Labor Day weekend in 2015.
“Plain and simple, more people have the discretionary funds to travel,” Crews said.
On the roads, lower Labor Day gasoline prices could boost the number of Las Vegas-bound tourists, said spokesman Gregg Laskoski of GasBuddy, which tracks gas prices nationwide.
Prices are $2.56 per gallon in Las Vegas and $2.45 statewide; that’s down about 65 cents per gallon from 12 months ago and nearly $1.20 per gallon from Labor Day 2014, Laskoski said. He said GasBuddy expects a 2 to 3 percent increase in Nevada roadway traffic this weekend compared with a year ago.
The LVCVA estimates tourists will spend $206.5 million in the valley over the holiday weekend. At the Toy Shack in downtown Las Vegas, assistant manager Gabie Castaneda said more tourists in town meant more business.
She added that major conventions such as CES and holidays such as New Year’s bring in more customers.
“It’s big, but we’ve had bigger,” Castaneda said of Labor Day weekend.
Little Darlings strip club manager Ron Nady called Labor Day weekend an “above-average” weekend but said increases in the number of guests won’t be obvious until Sunday night.
“We get a lot more traffic on Sunday night with everybody having Monday off,” he said. “Friday and Saturday are pretty close to normal.”
Hotels in the valley are at 95 percent capacity for the weekend, Arentsen said, meaning nearly 7,500 of the valley’s 149,262 hotel rooms are still available. It’s a 0.5 percent increase from last year’s 94.5 percent tally.
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