Visitors to Las Vegas Rose to 38.9 Million in 2006

Las Vegas attracted a record 38.9 million visitors in 2006, up 0.9 percent from a year earlier, while even more are forecast to visit the city this year, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said.

The authority projected 39.3 people would come to Las Vegas in 2007, helped in part by some 5,010 additional hotel rooms, boosting the city’s inventory to around 137,600. About 171,000 rooms are expected to be available by 2010, it said.

In 2006, hotel inventory slipped 0.4 percent as there were more closures than openings. The Boardwalk and Stardust casino-hotels closed on the Las Vegas Strip last year, while off the Strip, Station Casinos Inc.’s Red Rock and Michael Gaughan’s South Point casino-hotels opened up.

The average daily rate for hotel rooms rose 16 percent to $120, slightly higher than the average in the top 25 U.S. cities, but lower than New York at $240, the authority said. Hotel room occupancy increased 0.5 percentage points to 89.7 percent.