Las Vegas, long famous for its discount hotel rooms and cheap vacation packages, attracted its second highest number of visitors in 2011.
Vegas visitor count increased by over 4 percent last year. 38.9 million tourists visited the city in 2011, second only to the 39.2 million visitors attracted in 2007. Experts are forecasting a record 40 million visitors in 2012.
Las Vegas is home to over 150,000 hotel rooms that are benefiting from the recovery. Hotel occupancy was 84 percent last year, an increase of over 3 percentage points from 2010. The average daily room rate was up 11 percent to $105.
In early February the Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts reported improved fourth quarter earnings in part because of increasing demand for hotel rooms. Sands revenue per available room for its Las Vegas hotels was up 13 percent while Wynns Las Vegas revenue rose over 7 percent to just over $348 million. The Venetian and the Palazzo enjoyed 9 percent increases in their occupancy rates.
Recovery in the convention industry contributed to increasing hotel sales with Las Vegas hosting almost 9 percent more business travelers and almost 6 percent more events in 2011 than the previous year. McCarran International Airport reported over a 4 percent increase in passengers for the year. www.cheapfares.com