There's a lot of talk in the industry that our four-year upward prosperity train may be slowing down. Hotel construction levels are beginning to creep up, RevPAR increases are easing from the double-digit territory, etc., etc. All these things may or may not be true, but you couldn't tell by looking at Las Vegas.
Sin City's tourism business posted its strongest August ever. More than 3.3 million visitors braved the August heat (including me), an increase of about 100,000 people. Hotel occupancy grew by two percent to 90.7 percent, while ADR climbed 25 percent over the previous August to $116.57. The city has 133,347 hotel rooms. And despite high fuel costs and rising airfares, both airline arrivals and highway traffic to the city rose in August.
And Vegas isn't stopping there. Of the 10 largest hotel projects under development around the world, four of them—including the three largest—are in Las Vegas.
If Sin City is a bellwether for the rest of the hotel industry, we still have a long way to go before weâ€â„¢re facing a downturn.