Las Vegas Vacation Blog Blog

A report shows tourism continued to improve in June in Las Vegas, with the 16th straight month of increases in visitors and average hotel room rates.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority released a report Wednesday that shows visitor numbers grew 7 percent and average daily room rates jumped 13 percent in June compared with June 2010.

The average daily hotel room rate rose from $89.54 in June 2010 to $101.15 this year.

Gambling revenue jumped most dramatically on the Las Vegas Strip, with a 32.3 percent year-over-year increase. The Boulder Strip showed more modest gains of 5.7 percent.

Downtown Las Vegas represented the lone downturn, with that area of the city seeing a 4.1 percent drop in gambling revenue.

Source

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands has laid off 283 people from its Las Vegas resorts.

Company spokesman Ron Reese says the affected employees worked in the corporate offices as well as the Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.

Reese says the Friday layoffs are part of broader cost-reduction measures at the company. The company is facing huge interest costs because of a debt load topping $10.4 billion.

The pressure comes as business at its casinos has been badly hurt by the recession.

Reese says nearly 7,000 full-time equivalent positions remain in Las Vegas.

The company continues to plan a May 22 opening for its $778 million Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.

Also under construction is a $5.4 billion resort in Singapore due to open at the end of the year.

Source

Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. joined hoteliers in lambasting U.S. lawmakers’ criticism of corporate travel, saying hundreds of thousands of jobs are in jeopardy.

President Barack Obama’s warning this month that companies receiving government bailout money “can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime” is causing more convention and meeting cancellations in the city, already hurt by the U.S. recession, executives of the four biggest Las Vegas Strip casino owners said in interviews.
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