A new survey says that Las Vegas is among the top 40 best cities in which to live. Best Life Magazine ranks Las Vegas as the number 32, behind number 31 — Reno. Researchers used a variety of criteria for the study of 257 cities, including information from the FBI and the U.S. Census Bureau. Honolulu ranks as the top city to live in. Clarksville, Tennessee ranks at the bottom of the list.
Ridership on the Las Vegas Monorail is off to a better start this year, with first quarter seeing an increase 19 percent over the first three months of 2007. The numbers are also better than 2006, but still below the 2.3 million rider level in the first quarter of 2005.
Total revenue for the first quarter was $7,346,743.
Read the complete press release here | Search the LasVegasNOW.com archives for Monorail articles
While the January report looked like an indication that tourism traffic may be softening, the February numbers at McCarran airport helped ease fears that Las Vegas blew that fear out of the water. Passenger traffic in MCarran rose 3.2 percent from February 2007 to February of this year, with over 3.5 million people arriving and departing Las Vegas. The February surge put the city back on track for passenger growth for the year, albeit a small 0.2 percent increase for the year to date. All eyes will be on the March numbers to see of the growth can continue.Read the entire report: McCarrans’ February Passenger Report (pdf)
It seems that the Strip, while not completely immune, is doing its best to weather the current economic downturn, according the a report released today by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Impacting the numbers was a decrease in the number of rooms available to fill, due in part to the closing of the New Frontier Hotel and Casino. Overall, Las Vegas January visitor volume fell by 0.6-percent. This modest decrease came despite the fact that convention attendance was down over 100,000 people, or -13.1 percent.
Gaming revenue on the strip was down by about $8 million, and was down 4.1-percent for Clark County as a whole. The county-wide visitor numbers were dragged down by softness in Boulder City, Laughlin and Mesquite. However, there was one bright spot for casino operators in Mesquite, as although visitor volume wasd down 5.4 percent, those who did make the trip appeared to spend more per-capita. The city’s gross gaming revenue rose 25.9-percent to just over $13 million.
By Jonathan Humbert.For the second year in a row, Las Vegas has been named the fattest city in America by Men’s Fitness Magazine. We’ve been called a lot of things in our time. Sin City. Fat City. And the city of lights. Well, one out of three ain’t bad. (more…)
It was a busy year at Las Vegas’ air transportation hub in 2007. Nearly 47.7 million people flew in or out of McCarran International last year, making 2007 the airport’s busiest in record. The number of passengers appeared to wane towards the end of the year, however, as the numbers of travelers fell 3.2 percent from December 2006 to December 2007.
That figure is about 900,000 higher than 2006, but was still not enough to get the Las Vegas Monorail Co. into the black, according to a story today published by the Associated Press. With 22,000 riders a day during the last three months of the year, the monorail generated about $77,000 per day - however, the system needs 34,000 riders and $123,000 a day to break even.
Of the estimated 300,000 revelers that made Las Vegas their destination for New Year’s, Las Vegas Metro police reports that only 79 were arrested, compared to 145 arrests last year.
It seems that people took more care on the streets as well, as traffic accidents fell from 98 last year to 36 this year.
The number of people visiting Las Vegas decreased by an estimated 432 people from October 2006 to the same month this year, according to the latest statistics released by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. For the year as a whole, visitor volume has increased by about 0.8 percent.
The good news is that the people that did come to Las Vegas spent more, on average, during their stay. Gaming revenue in October was up a healthy 12.5 percent in Clark County, totaling over $1 billion for the month. That number pushed the yearly total to almost $9.1 billion, a 4.1 percent increase over 2006.
These numbers come in spite of the fact that convention attendance is down substantially this year over last. The number of conventions held in Las Vegas fill by 13 percent to 2,623, resulting in attendance numbers dropping by 21.2 percent.
The complete report, including numbers for Laughlin and Mesquite, can be found on the LVCCA’s website.
About 400,000 Nevadans will be taking to the roads and skies during the Labor Day weekend, an increase of less than 1 percent from last year, AAA Nevada says.
“Many families are facing household budgetary constraints this summer, which may be affecting holiday travel,” explained AAA Nevada spokesperson Michael Geeser. “This, coupled with the fact that many schools have already started classes is leading many families to stay home this holiday weekend.”
Over 300,000 will be traveling by car, which is a .9-percent increase from last year. Air travel is up by 1.8-percent, with over 68,000 Nevadans planning to travel by air. Approximatelly 9,000 are projected to travel by train, bus or other mode of transportation from last year.
View the rest of the story and a Labor Day holiday guide here on LasVegasNow.com