Visitor decline shows smallest drop in 11 months

By Tim Richardson

Friday, June 5, 2009 | 12:16 p.m.

The number of visitors to Las Vegas dropped 2.9 percent in April from the same month last year, but the drop was the smallest year-over-year decline in 11 months.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said 3,171,043 people visited Las Vegas in April, which is down from 3,265,251 visitors in April 2008. The decline was the smallest year-over-year fall since May 2008.

Occupancy of hotels across the metro area was 88 percent, which is off 2 percent from April 2008. That’s the smallest year-over-year decline in 13 months.

April also showed positive year-over-year increases for weekend hotel occupancy for the first time since December 2007, the LVCVA said.

The average daily room rate tumbled to $94.08 last month, a drop of 30 percent from the $135.67 average in April 2008. The number of room nights was up nearly a percent.

The number of conventions in Las Vegas continued to lag, showing a 30 percent drop from last year.

Traffic counts showed improvement, with the number of vehicles at the Nevada-California line on Interstate 15 up 11.3 percent compared to last year.