LV tourism falls after shooting

First statistical data to reflect financial impact of Route 91 Harvest tragedy

Visitation fell 4.2 percent to 3.6 million tourists in October, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Thursday, the second steepest year-over-year drop of 2017.

The decline, resulting from cancellations and postponements of trips in the wake of the 1 October shooting, jeopardizes the LVCVA’S bid to best 2016’s record visitation year of 42.9 million. With 10 months in the books, visitation is off 1.4 percent to 35.7 million people.

It is the first direct statistical data to reflect the direct financial impact of the Oct. 1 shooting on Southern Nevada’s economy. Mccarran International Airport earlier reported record passenger numbers in October.

Tourism numbers fell despite the third-best month of

TOURISM

2017 for convention attendance. The LVCVA reported 687,209 convention attendees in October, a 35.9 percent increase over a year ago.

Most of the increase resulted from this year’s Global Gaming Expo shifting from September to October (26,000 people) and this year’s appearance of the National Business Aviation Association’s 25,600 attendees, 6,100 for the Emergency Medical Services Association and 6,000 for Metalcon International.

While citywide occupancy was down 2.7 percentage points to 90 percent, the average daily room rate trended upward 0.4 percent to $139.62 with Strip rates up 1.3 percent to $152.24, the third-highest this year.

The November drop was second only to the 5.5 percent decline in February, which fell primarily as a result of there being one fewer day in the month than in February 2016, a leap year.

Gaming win holds its own

Gaming win in Las Vegas held its own in October as increases across Clark County offset a 6 percent downturn in revenue on the Strip, the state Gaming Control Board reported Thursday.

John Decree, a gaming analyst with Las Vegas-based Union Gaming, said expectations about October’s gross gaming revenue varied widely.

“While the airport traffic numbers released last week (a 1.5 percent increase for the month) alleviated some concerns about the worst-case scenario, many had feared gross gaming revenue could be down double digits in October in the face of a difficult comparison (up 14 percent in October 2016) and the Oct. 1 tragedy,” Decree said in a report to investors. “However, a 6.1 percent decline in revenue on the Strip for October is a relatively resilient outcome in our view.”

MGM Resorts International warned its investors in early November about a potential downturn in business for the quarter and in their earnings call, Caesars Entertainment executives said they had detected a drop in high-end play from Asian customers after the shooting.

While Strip win fell 6 percent from

October 2016 to $528.7 million, other Clark County locations were strong, leaving a decline of 0.3 percent to $854.3 million. Downtown Las Vegas was up 10 percent to $63.6 million, North Las Vegas climbed 11.6 percent to $27.1 million and the Boulder Strip soared 17.1 percent to