Las Vegas visitation down despite bump in convention attendance

LAS VEGAS -- Even with increased convention attendance, January's Las Vegas visitation was slightly down.

During the first month of 2013, 3.13 million people came to Las Vegas, down 0.7 percent from January 2012's total of 3.15 million visitors, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's monthly count.

Citywide hotel occupancy was down 0.2 points to 78.1 percent from 2012's 78.3 percent occupancy. Motel occupancy slipped 0.1 point to 45.1 percent from 45.2 percent in 2012. Weekend stays in January decreased a full 2 points to 80.6 percent occupancy from 82.6 percent occupancy in 2012.

Midweek occupancy, though, was up 0.7 points to 77 percent from 76.3 percent in 2012, probably because of the 6.2 percent increase in convention attendance.

In all, 571,964 people attended conventions in January, up from 2012's 538,552 .

The convention authority is citing the National Association of Home Builders' return after a three-year absence as the reason for increased convention attendance.

The number of conventions and meetings held also increased, 19.7 percent to 1,787 from 2012's 1,493 total.

The average daily room rate increased 0.4 percent to $114.22 in January, ahead of 2012's average daily room rate of $113.82.

Las Vegas had 3.64 million room nights occupied in January, down 0.6 percent from 2012's 3.66 million total.

On the highways, average daily auto traffic increased 7 percent to 91,703 from 2012's 85,713.

On Interstate 15 coming from California, average daily auto traffic increased 7.6 percent to 37,692 vehicles from 2012's total of 35,040.

Vehicle counts include visitor, resident and commercial traffic.

Elsewhere in Clark County, Laughlin's January visitation fell 9.1 percent in January to 148,503 people from 2012's total of 163,397.

In Mesquite, visitation dropped 7.5 percent in January to 73,944 from 79,962 in 2012.