The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported, "Visitors to Las Vegas" paid the highest room rates in history during the month of September. The average daily room rate in September was $187.18 a night — the highest average daily room rate since April’s $176.97 when the city hosted the National Football League Draft. Rates on the Strip were $199.49 a night with downtown Las Vegas rates at $117.95. Rates were 20.1 percent higher than they were in September 2021 and 36.5 percent higher than in Pre-Pandemic September 2019. Kevin Bagger, vice president of the LVCVA Research Center, said visitors flocked to Las Vegas on weekends for the Life Is Beautiful festival, the iHeartRadio festival, the season-opening Las Vegas Raiders game against the Arizona Cardinals and the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin Super Middleweight boxing match. September also featured the traditional end-of-summer Labor Day weekend. Higher rates are not being viewed as changing people’s perception of Las Vegas as a value proposition, resulting people from staying away. Las Vegas higher room rates may well be the wave of the future putting Las Vegas in line with San Francisco and Los Angeles. As has been the case for months, current indicators are better than they were in 2021, but not as good as in pre-pandemic 2019. Overall hotel occupancy reached 83.1 percent, which was 10.1 points ahead of last year, but 5.2 points behind September 2019. Weekend occupancy reached 92.1 percent — tied with March for second best in 2022 behind April’s 93.2 percent — but 3.5 points behind September 2019. Midweek occupancy reached 78.6 percent, up 12.5 points from last year, but down 6.5 points from 2019. Traffic on highways leading to Las Vegas was down for the month, possibly due to gas prices. Nevada Department of Transportation counts on all major highways are down 3.6 percent to an average 123,362 vehicles per day. At the California-Nevada border on Interstate 15, traffic fell 13.5 percent to 41,125 daily vehicles. NDOT does not discern between local traffic and vehicles with tourists. Passenger counts from Harry Reid International Airport for September have not been released.
SEPTEMBER TOURISM INDICATORS September 2022 / September 2021 / Change Visitor volume 3.355 million / (2021) 2.936 million +14.3% Citywide occupancy 83.1% / (2021) 73% +10.1 points Room nights occupied 3.761 million / (2021) 3.298 million +14% Convention attendance 372,600 / (2021) 306,900 +21.4% Average daily room rate $187.18 (2021) $155.80 +20.1% AIR PASSENGERS / 3.778 million AVERAGE DAILY HIGHWAY Auto Traffic 123,362 / (2021) 127,905 -3.6% CLARK COUNTY Gaming Revenue $1.061 billion / (2021) $1.005 billion +5.6%
