Las Vegas crapping out......

[marmar]

from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:



LAS VEGAS TOURISM: Drop in visitors accelerated toward end of 2008
4.4 percent decline fueled by December dip

By BENJAMIN SPILLMAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL


The number of people who visited Las Vegas fell 4.4 percent to 37.5 million in 2008.

And now for the bad news.

The decline accelerated toward the end of the year, paced by a 14.2 percent dip in December to 2.7 million.

Ten of 12 months in 2008 showed declines.

People who track the numbers say falling home prices and rising fuel costs contributed to the declines early in the year.

More recently, massive layoffs and other frightening economic news cut further into the number of people willing to pay up for a trip to Las Vegas.

"It has been decades since we've seen all these things happening at once," research director Kevin Bagger told the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors on Tuesday when he presented the numbers. "They all reflect the impact of the economy. We saw challenges in every sector."

In addition to the drop in visitor volume, the average daily room rate fell 9.8 percent to $119 for the year. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.lvrj.com/business/39420857.html

[lunatica]

1. Sin City can't survive unless Sinners haves money to burn

Las Vegas is a fantasy city which has never pretended to be anything else. The population needs to have an overflow of money to actually go there and indulge their fantasies with a ton of money. Otherwise, the fantasies must be a lot cheaper. What did they think was going to happen when the economy tanks?

[blue_onyx]

5. Nobody was thinking

There are a bunch of other new hotel/casinos in the process of being built. I wonder how they will fill those new rooms when they can't even fill the rooms they currently have. If the economy doesn't recovery quickly, there will be a lot more pain for Vegas on the way.

Does Vegas have any other major industry besides tourism? As someone from a state that's too dependent on one industry, that can be a big problem.

[stopbush]

7. Tourism is it in LV. I lived there from 2003-05, when the whole city

was on fire with development and home prices were soaring.

There was a Hummer in every other driveway - people using their ever-increasing home equity to buy stupid things.

Something had to give. Vegas doesn't have the natural resources available to sustain the development they were planning.

[Horse with no Name]

2. I'm sure the housing bubble in Nevada had NOTHING to do with this

IN fact, I'd probably bet money on it...:eyes:

[hatrack]

3. Give you four-to-one that Big Bill Bennett can still find time for Vegas!!

:puke:

[liberal N proud]

4. I was in Vegas in early December. It was a ghost town then

Talking with the taxi driver and other local people they indicated the bottom fell out on Vegas in late October. They indicated that everything was moving along normally and about the time of the bailout moving through Congress that is all went flat.

[Blue_Tires]

6. they can invite the NBA back

lolz

[devilgrrl]

8. This is all Obama's fault - had he not made those comments, this wouldn't be happening!

:sarcasm:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5031724

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. Reading through the comments section, this is all Harry Reids' fault .

:silly:

[Mike 03]

10. More to it than this. I think it has a lot to do with the rise of the U.S. Dollar against the

Euro.

If you went there last Summer or in early Autumm, you heard European accents.

I think that is why Dubai kicked in the funding for MGM's (doomed) project at that time.

[nachosgrande]

11. Bingo!

I was staying at the Bellagio in early September and the place was flooded with Europeans.