19 March 2008

There is a recession - just ask Las Vegas

The old slogan used to be "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." However now it seems that getting anything to happen in Vegas is a stretch. The new Las Vegas slogan is "Your Vegas is showing" although you might be confused if you think the slogan is VEGAS RIGHT NOW. Either way there is very little action going on. And what here is - is definitely down.

However I digress....

The news is bad.

Here are the results from January in Las Vegas as reported in Travel Weekly USA.

LAS VEGAS VISITOR STATISTICS were released last week for January, and the numbers were down across the board. According to a report from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, visitor volume dropped 0.6% compared with January 2007, the largest decline in visitor volume in 12 months. Total convention attendance was 677,978 for the month, the weakest start of the year for convention numbers since January 2002, just after 9/11. January occupancy levels dropped 0.5% year-over-year. Gaming revenues for Clark County were down 4.1%. The total number of passengers passing through Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport dropped by 2.8% in January, on the heels of a 2.5% decline in November and a 3.2% drop in December, marking the first decline in numbers of passengers through McCarran since August 2003. And the average daily auto traffic on major highways into Las Vegas was 74,399 vehicles in January, the lowest number in three years.

Ouch...........

No one wants to party it would seem. Except perhaps Eliot Spitzer.

Cheers (I hope)

Timothy

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