Spring Break Brings Hope to Sin City

Spring Break is bringing some welcome business to the Las Vegas Strip, after visitor count and revenue has dropped steeply. McCarren International Airport reports traveler counts are down %15 from this time last year. Hotel occupancy is down 20% year-over-year, and gaming revenue is down by billions of dollares in revenue.

When the subprime housing market began it’s meltdown last year, Las Vegas was particularly hard-hit, as one of the largest markets for sub-prime lenders. The last decade of booming growth and construction swelled the population, jobs, and housing markets to the highest levels in the city’s history.

As the mortgage crisis grew, the stock market began to shed value, leading to a full-blown economic crisis. Las Vegas didn’t see tourism drop until earlier this year, as main street America began to feel the squeeze of tougher economic times. When President Obama pronounced that businesses that received TARP funds could not take trips to Vegas, dozens of businesses, some of whom were not even involved in the TARP bailout, began to cancel conferences. The last reported total of canceled conferences in Las Vegas year to date was over 100. The unintended consequences of the President’s remark are spoiling the reputation that local leaders have worked hard to build in Nevada as a premium destination for business conferences.

Enter the Spring Breakers. Many college students began in the last week to pour into hotels and casinos on the strip, gambling, drinking, and going to shows. The welcome boost in business has been felt all across the Las Vegas tourism industry, and even the locals can see a difference in traffic and business.

Some students on break were warned to stay out of Mexico, a traditional spring destinantion for many, because of the recent violent clashes between the Mexican government and the drug cartels vying for power. More than 6000 people were killed in violent in-fighting within the cartels, as well as military and police actions to limit the flow of drugs into and out of their country.

Las Vegas, with it’s recently-reduced travel and stay packages, is suddenly attractive again to Spring Breakers. Cheap flights, low room rates, discounted show tickets, and the promise of reward or pleasure are all calling to partiers this holiday season. Las Vegas has cultivated a party atmosphere and extensive nightlife venues, both of which are main priorities of college students on spring break.

Las Vegas businesses are welcoming the business and hoping for more business when the summer season begins in another two months. With unemployment rising to 10.1 %, only .6 percent from it’s high point in the 1980’s, all business is welcome business.  Weddings, vacations, or business, Sin City welcomes all travelers, and the house is always willing to play the odds with her visitors. Maybe this Spring Break has become the silver lingin for Sin City.