LAUGHLIN — Although Laughlin’s resorts attracted fewer visitor in October than in the same month the previous year, visitor volume has remained strong with an increase of 4.5% during the first 10 months of 2023 compared with 2022 figures, according to statistics recently released by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
October was the first month in 2023 that showed a decline in Laughlin visitation, when 101,800 people visited the Colorado Riverfront gaming community, 1,800 — or 1.7% — fewer than in the same month a year earlier. Despite this slight decline — which also occurred in Las Vegas and Mesquite — a total of 1,102,300 visitors selected Laughlin as their vacation destination from January through October, a 4.5% increase over the same period in 2022. Despite the slight slowdown in visitation, gaming revenue remained strong with a 5.3% increase reported in October, when Laughlin’s resorts won $47.567 million from gamblers, up from the $45.157 million reported in October of 2022. Total gaming revenue for the first 10 months of 2023 was $439.236 million, 2.8% more than during the same period in 2022.
Consistent with a decline in visitor volume, traffic on Nevada State Route 163 into Laughlin declined by 1.5% to an average of 4,788 vehicles per day in October compared with 4,852 vehicles per day in October of 2022. This slight decline did not result in an overall downturn in traffic to Laughlin year-to-date through the end of October; data shows traffic remained 3.1% above the previous year with an average of 4,803 cars per day travelling into Laughlin from the west from January through the end of October.
Occupancy of the town’s nearly 8,700 hotel rooms declined slightly to 47.8%, a 0.6% drop from the 48.4% hotel occupancy reported in October 2022. However, hotel occupancy for the first 10 months of the year was up 2.4% to 52.7% townwide and a total of 1,395,600 occupied room-nights were reported from January through October, an increase of 5.8% over the same period in 2022.
Good news for visitors, the average daily room rate showed an 18.1% decline in October, to $55.75 per night in October this year compared with $68.09 paid for the hotel rooms in October of 2022. Visitors paid an average of $61.86 for a Laughlin hotel room between January and October this year, a decrease of 9.2% over the $68.14 visitors paid for a hotel room during the same time frame in 2022. Despite offering comparable rooms in full-service gaming resorts, Laughlin’s hotels boast the lowest-priced hotel accommodations in Clark County.
LVCVA reports indicate affordable hotel accommodations is one of Laughlin’s major tourist attractions, especially compared with the cost of staying in a hotel 90 miles north in Las Vegas. Hotel guests on the Las Vegas Strip paid an average of $251.42 per night and Downtown Las Vegas hotels charged $126.78 per room in October, for an average daily room rate of $233.22 reported in the Las Vegas valley. Those figures showed an 11.1% increase over the same month the prior year, and Las Vegas visitors paid an average of $186.13 per night for a hotel room during the first 10 months of 2023 in Las Vegas, an increase of 10.3 percent over the same period in 2022. LVCVA reports there were 152,289 hotel rooms available in Las Vegas in October.
Farther northeast in Mesquite, hotel guests paid an average of $82.49 for a hotel room in October, 3.5% less than during the same period in 2022. From January through October, Mesquite visitors paid an average of $74.89 per night for accommodations, an increase of 5.2% over the ADR of $71.17 resorts charged their guests in October of 2022. Mesquite’s resorts offer a combined total of 1,650 hotel rooms, charging more for rooms but winning less from gamblers, with the region posting October gaming revenues of $16.287 million, a 1.9 percent increase over the same month the previous year and a slight 0.2% increase during the first 10 months of this year.
Laughlin resorts’ air service programs also remained strong in October, when 14,811 passengers arrived at the Laughlin-Bullhead City International Airport, a hefty 41.3% increase over the same period last year, when 10,529 passengers flew into the local airport. Air travel from January through October posted a 32% increase from January through October, with a total of 123,521 passengers traveling through the airport compared with 93,606 during the same time frame a year earlier.
