The tourism industry in Las Vegas is reportedly continuing its post-pandemic recovery after recording a double-digit rise in May visitation figures and posting associated increases in aggregated hotel room occupancy rates and revenues.

According to a Wednesday report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal citing official figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the southern Nevada city welcomed almost 2.9 million holidaymakers in May. The newspaper detailed that this tally represented a boost of 11.8% month-on-month and was an impressive 1,802% higher when compared with the same 31-day period in 2020.

Longer lag:

However, the May figure was still reportedly 22% down on the around 3.6 million visitors Las Vegas welcomed in May of 2019 before the area’s tourist-friendly economy was thrown into turmoil owing to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. This tumult had purportedly culminated in an almost twelve-week shutdown from the following March although most of the city’s casinos and hotels have since re-opened and are able to again operate at full capacity.

Busy bustle:

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that in excess of 3.5 million passengers travelled through McCarran International Airport in May as traffic along the roads of southern Nevada averaged about 137,000 vehicles per day.

Elevated attendance:

All of this reportedly helped to push average aggregated May hotel occupancy rates in Las Vegas up by 5.3% month-on-month to 70.9% as the mid-week figure hit 62.8%, which equated to an associated swell of 4.9%, and the level for weekends came within nine points of 2019’s level at 87.8%.

Rising receipts:

The newspaper reported that this escalation additionally led to the hotels in Las Vegas recording average May room revenues of $89.82, which represented a month-on-month improvement of 25.2% but still far below the $127.59 mean chalked up for the same period two years previous. This good news was purportedly complimented by such venues chronicling an over 11.6% commensurate improvement in combined room nights for the 31-day period to 3,223,900.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reportedly explained that the average daily room rate for a hotel in the city stood at $126.69 in May although the associated mean $132.69 price for a night in a Strip facility had equated to a diminution of 12.4% when compared with the same month in 2019. The period conversely purportedly moreover saw the attendant rate for a downtown room rise by 21.6% to $93.79.

Cautionary counsel:

Joseph Greff is a gaming analyst for JP Morgan and he reportedly used a Wednesday note to proclaim that second-quarter revenues per available room for hotels in Las Vegas are currently tracking at about 37% lower when compared with the same three-month period in 2019. The specialist purportedly went on to forecast that associated occupancy rates are 25% down with an average daily rate that is some 16% subordinate.