Furniture market boosts July tourism

About 3.4 million people visited Las Vegas in July, up 5.7 percent from the same month a year ago, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Monday.

Convention attendance rose 36.9 percent to 353,264 people, driven by the debut of the World Market Center furniture mart in downtown Las Vegas. Convention-goers spent $433.6 million on non-gambling activities, up 40.8 percent from a year earlier.

Citywide occupancy was 91.9 percent, up 2.4 percentage points from a year ago, in spite of more than 3,000 new rooms available on the Strip this year. The average daily room rate skyrocketed 19.3 percent to $94.76.

Passenger traffic through McCarran Airport was up 7.9 percent to about 4 million people.

2005-09-12