The lack of traffic and restaurant crowds were the first indicator that December visitor volumes in Mesquite took a break from their year-long torrid increases. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority report confirmed that when it reported 88,538 people visited Mesquite in the last month of the year. It was the first month in calendar year 2016 that reported less than 100,000 visitors.

Still, the count was up 14.8 percent from December 2015 and closed out a year that had 1.346 million people visiting Mesquite. That’s the best count since 2008.

December’s gross gaming revenues in Mesquite increased by 4.3 percent to $10.011 million bringing the yearly total to $117.719 million. That’s an increase of 3 percent over the total amount taken in for calendar year 2015.

Mesquite was the only reporting area in Clark County to show an increase in gaming revenues for December. Laughlin reported an 8.8 percent decrease in gaming dollars for the month. The Las Vegas Strip had a 1.7 percent decline, downtown Las Vegas dropped 2.2 percent and the Boulder Strip showed a whopping 26.9 percent drop in gaming revenues. All those helped bring a 4.3 percent decline in gaming dollars for all of Clark County in December.

Only one category in Mesquite’s portion of the LVCVA report showed a negative comparison to last December. Total occupancy declined 1.5 percent to 54.6 percent for the month. Average daily room rates increased 6.8 percent to $54.47 from last year’s $51.01 rate. Total room nights occupied also increased 8.3 percent to 32,244.

Revenue per available room (RevPAR) was up 3.9 percent in December to $29.74. RevPar is calculated by taking the total revenue for the month and dividing by the number of rooms rented for the month. It measures revenue from hotel room rates only and does not include other sources of revenue like alcohol or gaming. It’s commonly used in the hospitality industry to measure the financial performance of and health among hotel operators and is one of the most important numbers to hoteliers.

Average daily auto traffic on I-15 at the Nevada Arizona border increased 3.3 percent to 23,707 vehicles daily in December.

All of Mesquite’s LVCVA report categories showed positive percentage changes for the calendar year 2016 when compared to all of 2015.

Yearly visitor volumes were up 11.4 percent. Room inventories increased 11.3 percent to 1,905 thanks to the October opening of the Rising Star Sports Ranch resort.

Total occupancy rates for the year increased 2.0 percent to 76.3 percent while average daily room rate rose 4.2 percent to $57.93.

RevPAR for the year increased 7.3 percent to $44.36 and total room nights occupied were up 5.1 percent to 490,219.

Average daily auto traffic on I-15 was also up 6.5 percent in 2016 to 26,182 vehicles.

Laughlin reported a 0.5 percent increase in its December visitor volumes at 123,629 and a 1.2 percent increase for the year with 1.910 million visitors.

Total occupancy for the river city hotels was up 1.4 percent in December and the same percentage for the year. Average daily room rates increased a slight 0.7 percent in December and 3.8 percent for 2016. RevPAR rose 3.9 percent in December and 6.0 percent for the year. Total room nights occupied were up 2.1 percent in December and up 2.8 percent for the year.

Laughlin’s gross gaming revenues for the year increased 1.0 percent to $472.430 million.

According to the LVCVA, “Las Vegas had another record-breaking year for visitation, surpassing 42.9 million visitors, 1.5 percent over 2015.”

Yearly gaming revenues for 2016 reported from all Clark County entities increased 1.0 percent from 2015 coming in at just over $9.7 billion. Only downtown Las Vegas had a higher percentage gaming revenue increase than Mesquite for the year with a 4.2 percent rise.