In February 2016, 110,561 people visited Mesquite when the month had one extra day. In February 2017, that number fell to 103,365 with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority blaming the decrease on having one less day in the month.

While the number of visitors this February rose 1.3 percent from last year’s comparison, the 104,700 people still didn’t come close to two years ago.

The good news is Mesquite is the only reporting jurisdiction in the LVCVA report that had a positive increase in visitation. Laughlin fell by a miniscule 0.2 percent and the Las Vegas metropolitan area fell by 0.6 percent. LVCVA continued to point to a “temporarily reduced room inventory” as reason for the decline in Las Vegas.

Total occupancy rates in Mesquite rose 4.0 percent to 79.7 percent. Total room nights occupied also increased by 4.7 percent to 42,300.

Laughlin’s total occupancy rate increased 1.6 percent to 68.1 percent while total room nights occupied increased 1.8 percent.

The LVCVA report did not include figures for the average daily room rate (ADR) or revenue per available room (RevPAR) because “updated accounting rules in 2018 have varying impacts on property ADR and RevPAR calculations; as updated data become available, restated figures will be released later in the year.”

Gross gaming revenue in Mesquite fell by 1.5 percent from $10.786 million last year to $10.625 million this year.

Clark County gaming revenues rose 7.6 percent with the Las Vegas Strip leading the way with an 11.4 percent increase. Downtown Las Vegas gaming revenues were 2.8 percent better this year than last year while the Boulder Strip saw a decline of 1.0 in a year-to-year comparison. Laughlin gaming revenues increased 4.6 percent over February 2017.

Average daily auto traffic in Mesquite at the I-15 Nevada Arizona border increased 6.4 percent to 25,256 vehicles a day. Daily auto traffic at the I-15 Nevada California border increased 4.5 percent to 39,896 vehicles. Traffic into Las Vegas on all major highways increased 3.0 percent in a year over year comparison.

Airplane passengers in Laughlin increased 5.6 percent to 22,907 while average daily auto traffic also increased 2.5 percent to 4,761 vehicles crossing the Arizona Nevada border on Highway 163.