June’s temperatures in Mesquite weren’t the only thing that was red hot as the visitor count increased to 119,087, a 3.0 percent increase from the 115,611 people that visited in June 2016. That was the largest percentage increase in Clark County as reported by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).

Laughlin saw a 2.6 percent increase in its total visitor volume while the Las Vegas area had a 2.3 percent decline.

Gross gaming revenues in Mesquite increased 3.7 percent to $8.565 million. Last June it was $8.260 million. Other than the downtown Las Vegas gambling area that saw an 8.7 percent increase, Mesquite’s improvement is the best from all reporting areas in Clark County.

The Las Vegas Strip saw a 1.6 percent increase while all of the county had a slight 0.3 percent increase.

Laughlin’s gaming take dropped 4.1 percent and the Boulder Strip dove 15.1 percent. The LVCVA attributed the increases in part “to non-baccarat table games win.”

Total occupancy in Mesquite’s hotels dropped by 1.4 percent to 81.4 percent and with that, revenue per available room (RevPAR) declined 1.2 percent.

However, the average daily room (ADR) rate paid by visitors rose a slight 0.5 percent to $54.95 while total room nights occupied jumped 10.5 percent to 46,520.

“These are pretty good numbers for June and year-to-date also,” George Rapson said. He is the Mesquite city council representative on the LVCVA Board of Directors.  “The negative or flat numbers generally relate to the Rising Star Sports Ranch opening last fall. Their opening 200 rooms diluted occupancy, ADR and RevPAR. It will be interesting to see what happens next year with those numbers when we are back to apples to apples.”

In the first six months of 2017, visitor volumes have declined a slight 0.5 percent from 702,769 visitors between January and June 2016 to 699,078 overall this year.

Comparing the rest of Mesquite’s numbers for the first six months, total occupancy is down 3.1 percent, ADR is up 0.1 percent, RevPAR declined 3.7 percent and total room nights occupied is up 6.7 percent.

Average daily auto traffic on I-15 at the Nevada Arizona border increased 5.9 percent to 29,658 vehicles every day. The daily traffic counts on I-15 at the Nevada California border dropped 0.9 percent but the traffic counts on all major highways leading into Las Vegas were up 1.1 percent.

Traffic counts on Highway 163 between Arizona and Laughlin rose 2.5 percent and airplane passengers in and out of Laughlin jumped 22.5 percent.

Laughlin also positive increases in the rest of its hotel-related numbers. Total occupancy was up 3.2 percent, ADR rose 10.3 percent, RevPar jumped 15.6 percent and total room nights occupied increased 3.7 percent.