Las Vegas Airport Travel Plummets, Hotel-Casino Occupancy Rates Low?
Posted on: January 29, 2021, 03:19h.
Last updated on: January 31, 2021, 07:59h.
Larry Henry
Read More
Expertise:
Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.
The number of travelers using the Las Vegas airport continued to decline in December, down more than 60 percent from the same month a year earlier. This coronavirus-related slump in tourism has contributed to low hotel-casino occupancy rates.
Last month, McCarran International Airport recorded nearly 1.7 million arriving and departing passengers. This is 60.7 percent below the 4.2 million travelers who used the airport in December 2019, according to the latest figures from the Clark County Department of Aviation.
Overall in 2020, the number of passengers fell by 56.9 percent, compared to 2019. Last year, about 22 million travelers used the airport. In 2019, the passenger total was over 51 million. The city has lost more than 29 million air travelers so far during the pandemic.
The airport is just east of the Las Vegas Strip, near the Tropicana Las Vegas and other hotel-casinos at the southern end of the resort corridor.
In January and February, airport travel at McCarran had been on a record-setting pace, according to an aviation department news release.?
The number of travelers began to tumble after the first coronavirus cases surfaced in March. That month, Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) ordered casinos and other businesses statewide to close. In April, the airport had its lowest number of travelers, only 152,716 for the month.
After a 78-day shutdown, the governor permitted casinos to reopen June 4. Some opened right away. Others began operating again over time.
Low Visitor Volume
Because of Las Vegas’ remote desert location, airport travel is seen as important in getting large numbers of visitors to the city. The nearest big metropolitan area, Los Angeles, is at least four hours away by car. Phoenix is about five hours away.
Some tourism officials have expressed hope that a high-speed train from Southern California to Las Vegas will help in boosting tourism numbers. However, construction on a train is not expected to begin until at least the spring.
The 19.03 million people who visited Las Vegas in 2020 was off by 55.2 percent from the previous year, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It also was the lowest number since 1989. That is the year the Mirage Las Vegas was built on the west side of the Strip, sparking a boom in megaresort construction.
Hope on the Horizon
Hotel occupancy rates in December also were low. The weekend rate was 45.4 percent. During the middle of the week, the occupancy rate dropped to 25 percent, the newspaper reported.?
With no conventions or major events in Las Vegas, some casino executives expect midweek occupancy rates to remain soft.
Several hotel-casinos have shut down their entire operations, including the gaming floors and hotel towers, during the middle of the week. Others are closing their hotel towers only during the midweek period. These closures are considered temporary, depending on when visitor volume turns around.
Lower room rates reflect an effort to attract visitors. The average room rate in December was $100.09, or 9.3 percent less than the same month in 2019, the newspaper reported.?
Officials are hopeful that COVID-19 vaccines and the public’s desire to travel will help revitalize the Las Vegas tourism economy.
Rosemary A. Vassiliadis, the aviation department’s director, said she has confidence vaccines “will be a stimulus to air travel.”
“We know that there is pent-up demand for this destination, and the airport will be at the forefront of the Las Vegas recovery effort,” she said in the news release.
Related News Articles
Most Popular
Most Commented
Most Read
LOST VEGAS: First Documented ‘Trick Roll’ by a Prostitute
Corey Levitan
— September 9, 2024
Last Comments ( 37 )
Nothing proves one's superiority like pointing out (Again!) how Vegas is going down 'cause it's being "ghettoized" by "stimulus check spenders." And oh, did I mention all the "welfare" types? As if you can tell who's on welfare by looking at them. Anyway, send me YOUR next stimulus check, I'll meet you at your room at the Vegas Budget Inn and the first Pabst Blue Ribbon is on me. You see how that dog whistle thing works? Everybody gets it. Stop being such a small "hand" coward and just say you saw too many black people in Vegas. Damn! Anyway, don't you know it's (racism) trending? Probably since Bugsy Siegel.
Now is the time to go to Vegas especially if you have had the Vaccination. Enjoyed this story
I despise the human race and Vegas, so these kinds of stories and comments really brighten up my day.
Went to Vegas for a week of golf, i couldn't believe how trashy it was there. I was afraid of getting muged while walking from the parking lot to my hotel which was the Bellagio. Its turned into a real gang bangers ghetto. Not going back there anytime soon.
I read alot of great views on here but the "ghettofabulous'' and "welfare/stimulus" spending people in Vegas is outrageous. That has nothing to do with the situation in Vegas. I worked throughout the pandemic in a food supply warehouse and literally didn't go anywhere the entire year due to working crazy hours just to load trucks with groceries. I go to Vegas 3-4 times a year but last year I cancelled two trips going out there. I just went recently on January 20th and stayed 3 nights. I needed and deserved a break and guess what I'm not ghetto or collecting welfare. Many of the people that has gone to vegas are working folks who just need a getaway. That's all. I just really hate when people I'm their own way try to put race or socioeconomic status into everything. We can read I'm between the lines of what you are saying but you can't speak for others and you don't know why folks and who the folks are traveling out there and you don't know their income status either. Some of those people are what is keeping this sad economy from fully collapsing all together. Stop it with the stereotypes and I do believe that vegas can recover from this pandemic but they're gonna have to do better with deals and incentives for folks to come. There are many people now and soon when weather breaks that will be wanting and desperately needing a getaway. I still go back to the initial handling of this pandemic in the beginning.. we could be in a much better place now with covid-19 had it been handled better in the beginning.
Corona has a lot to do with it but at the same time it's all them high ass Resort fees they charge you when you rent a room and the police f****** with you all the time don't nobody want to go down here the resort fees cost more than the damn room if I get a room for 4 days I have to pay $200 in Resort fees ain't nobody coming to Las Vegas all these Indian reservations have gambling and casinos to people tired of getting cheated out their money I can understand one-night Resort fee but every night is $50 a resort fee and here the room only cost eighty bucks no I would never go back to Las Vegas and the police is crooked and corrupt out there we all know that. Vegas is not the same I don't blame you don't waste your time or your money there's other places out here that we can enjoy yourself at without the resort fees and the police harassing you for nothing. The major big casinos is robbing you of your money and don't do nothing for the homeless community and the shelters they don't give back all they do is take take take and they are responsible for a lot of people being homeless and alcoholics so I say f*** Vegas
I have never seen a lower class of thugs in Las Vegas as in the last 9 months. People are swarming here from their own home states that were shut down and acting like there is no pandemic going on. I feel really sorry for all the workers and security that have now been turned in to the mask police. It's terrible here. Stay home!!!!