Las Vegas posted its greatest March visitation numbers, simulating ostentatious airport traffic statistics reported earlier in the week, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spokespersons stated on Wednesday.
There were reportedly 3.78 million visitors to Southern Nevada for the month, a 1.4 percent boost compared March 2016. It has been the third best month for Las Vegas in history, following closely behind July 2016 and October 2015.
Professionals associated the high number to having an extra weekend fall in March this year compared to last year and to the establishment of the ConExpo-Con/Agg building equipment trade show, to which nearly 130,000 people participated in. As well as the NCAA’s March Madness this always gives the state a healthy boost in tourism numbers. March Madness is an event for both gamblers and regular sports fans so the event brings in profit for casinos, sports betting as well as basketball apparel stores who see a spike in sales.
Convention participation was up 13.3 percent to 757,444 despite there being 8.9 percent less conventions and trade shows for the month. The high visitor count improved state gaming profits as casinos state-wide reported taking in $991 million in March, 7.4 percent ahead of March 2016.
More notably, three-month win trends climbed up by the highest level in a year, up 4.8 percent over the first quarter of 2016, the states Gaming Control Board reported on Wednesday.
Because of the hefty March visitation results, accommodation room requests skyrocketed. The LVCVA reported the typical everyday room rate climbed up 21.9 percent to $149.02 for the month moving the quarterly average up 8.3 percent to $140.31.
Citywide occupancy soared by 2.2% bringing the total to 94 percent. Motel occupancy scored the greatest jump, moving from 75.7 percent a year ago to 81.1 percent in March. Downtown tenancy rates were up 4% to 89.2 percent.
In March 1996, the record month, the occupancy rate was 95.8 percent, but there were only 90,266 rooms to fill. Last month, there were 149,351 spaces in the market.
The NCAA March Madness basketball competition produced outstanding sportsbook earnings this year. At the state’s 190 places to bet basketball, books won $41.3 million, a 91.7 percent boost over in 2015. However sportsbook had simply a 9.6 percent win percentage for basketball. The sale of different basketball apparel items was up as expected, but a stand out was in the sale of basketball shorts.
The state’s three-month pattern of wins for January, February and March was motivating and Southern Nevada’s leading markets surpassed it. For the quarter, Clark County win was up 5.6 percent, the Strip was up 5.5 percent and downtown Las Vegas continued its outstanding run up 18.2 percent.
Fiscal-year patterns likewise are encouraging for casino win.
State-wide, for the nine months between July 1 and March 31, win is up 3.2 percent to $8.67 billion. For the same period, Clark County is up 3.3 percent to $7.51 billion, the Strip is up 3.7 percent to $4.95 billion and downtown Las Vegas is up 9.9 percent to $455.2 million.