LAS VEGAS— According to a report in the Las Vegas Sun, the citys hotels reported full houses this past weekend and into the holiday early this week. Major hotels reported sellouts, visitor counts were expected to be almost unchanged from last years levels, and travelers leaving Las Vegas packed McCarran International Airport yesterday, Dec. 2. Airport spokeswoman Debbie Millett said that traffic in the airport was “busy” and that the number of visitors in for the holiday “lives up to expectations.” But it was a different kind of customer coming to Las Vegas for New Years 2002, reported the newspaper. In years past customers would have to book hotel rooms months in advance to have any hope of staying in Las Vegas on New Years Eve. If they did manage to get a room, the rates they would pay for those rooms would be exorbitant. This year much of the New Years business was booked less than a week before Dec. 31, said John Marz, senior vice president of marketing at Mandalay Resort Group, which owns five strip casinos. “People understand theres a lot of (vacancies) in Las Vegas now, and they can wait longer to make their decision to come up here,” Marz said. “Thats exactly what happened (this New Years). It was literally within the last five days that these rooms started to sell out.” The story was the same at MGM MIRAGEs five Strip casinos, spokeswoman Shelley Mansholt said. In terms of number of visitors, the holiday beat expectations, Marz said. At Park Place Entertainment Corp.s five strip properties, business was strong enough that hundreds of laid-off workers were called back, Park Place spokeswoman Debbie Munch said. “It was more an FIT (free-and-independent travel) customer than a casino customer,” Marz said. “Our revenues for the weekend met our expectations. We got a good rate this weekend. It was not an incredibly great rate, but it was a good rate.” Mansholt said the weekend was not the revenue generator for MGM MIRAGE that it had been in prior years. “In terms of rates, they were much lower than in recent years,” Mansholt said. Though final counts wont be known for several weeks, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority was projecting 282,000 would visit Las Vegas for New Years 2002, down by just 5,000 over New Years 2001. That would equate into a 97% occupancy rate, compared with more than 99% on New Years 2001. SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun
