TRAFFIC REPORT - May 2007                                         

I-15 at Stateline/Primm                                                              View Details

 NORTHBOUND MEMORIAL DAY TRAFFIC TOPS73,000!                                                             

Northbound traffic counts taken at Stateline/Primm on the Friday/Saturday preceding Memorial Day showed a slight drop of 4% vs comparable holiday dates in 2006.  Return traffic on Sunday/Monday was down 3%.  The slow down in holiday traffic impacted the month.  Average Daily Traffic was off 0.8% while Weekday was up 0.2%, but Weekend was off 2.7%. (See chart below)  In 2006 there were three days of data missing.  Taking into account some differences in how Cal Trans and Highway Radio handled the loss of data in 2006, there was either an increase of .7% or a decrease of  .8%.

On the other three non-holiday weekends traffic was down.  The biggest drop came in the weekend preceding the Memorial Day holiday;  for Friday, the 18^th, and Saturday, the 19^th, the counts were down 7% and on the 4^th and 5^th and 11^th and 12^th off 2% each. Vehicle counts in both directions are up 0.1% year-to-date.

 Laughlin, Nevada (SR163, Davis Dam Road) U.S. 95  (Searchlight, .5 miles north of SR 164, Nipton Road)

There was a 5% increase in vehicles headed into Laughlin on Friday, the 25^th and Saturday, the 26^th, on Davis Dam Road preceding the Memorial Day weekend.  This was 7.8% above the average for the other Friday/Saturday periods in May.  The report for the balance of the month showed Average Daily Traffic up 1.3%, Weekday up 1.9% and Weekend plus 1.0%. (See chart below.)  On US 95 there was also an increase - Average Daily Traffic up 3.3%, Weekday up 3.7% and Weekend up 4.2%.

Mesquite, Nevada (I-15 at the Nevada/Arizona state line)

Average Daily Traffic was up 1.4%, Weekday up 1.9% and Weekend up .16%.  These totals are for I-15 only and not traffic counts on the north or south bound off-ramps, so there is no means of measuring traffic going into Mesquite.                                                                                            

GAMING REVENUE REPORT - APRIL 2007 - DOWNTOWN GAMING WIN UP 7% IN MARCH The Strip's gaming win showed a recovery from after a drop in March three of the main venues in Clark County (Downtown, Strip and Laughlin) had a 1% increase.  The percentage of statewide gaming win (share) Downtown was up from 5% last year to 6% but  is still off 4.7% in the trailing twelve months.  The Strip dropped 1% in share and is up 2.4% in the trailing twelve months.  Laughlin jumped a full share point to 6% and is 6.2% ahead in the trailing twelve months. Clark County also showed a 1% increase in share was up to 85% from 83.3% last year. Clark County is up 5.4 for the trailing12months. The state win was also up 1% in April and 4.5% for the trailing twelve months. McCARRAN AIRPORT REPORT - APRIL 2007 Total count of inbound and outbound passengers into McCarran was up 2.5% in April for a 3.6% increase year-to-date (YTD).  Among schedules carriers, US Airways continues to show the greatest growth, up 19.9% this year, Southwest holding steady with a 1.6% increase and Delta up 2.9%. Both United and American continue to show declines, with United down 2.9% and American off 11.7%.  Total for scheduled carriers is up 3.9%. In the long term, charter passengers into the airport now represents less than 1% of the arrivals and departures. FOREIGN TRAVEL TO LAS VEGAS OFF 21% Foreign visitors to the U.S. have declined 17% in the period from 2000 to 2005, according to a report from the office of Travel and Tourism Industries U.S. Dept. of Commerce.  The loss to the U.S. economy over that period amounts to over $100 billion. Of the major tourist destinations in the continental United States with at least one million visitors per year, only New York City had an increase, up 2%.  Las Vegas, with 1.8 million foreign visitors in 2005 is off 21% since 2000, a better performance than Los Angeles, which is down 27%, San Francisco off 25%, Miami down 29% and Orlando showing an 18% decline.

There's a good deal of criticism of the Commerce Department from commercial tourism businesses about the department's poor marketing efforts. U.S. spending for this fiscal year is at $3.9 million compared with Malaysia with a$117.9 million budget. France and Spain lead the world in visitors and with the Olympics coming up in China the fear is that the U.S. will be replaced for third place in the ranking of top foreign visitors destinations. The decline in tourism in the U.S. is attributable to the deterioration of the image of the U.S., the time it takes to get a visa, the security requirements and 73% of the respondents felt that the surly treatment by custom and immigration employees at point of entry contributed to the poor perception of the U.S. as a place that welcomes foreign visitors. ELECTRONIC MEASUREMENT OF RADIO AUDIENCES COMES TO THE LOS ANGELES MARKET The introduction by Aribtron of electronic measurement for audience usage will come to the five county Southern California area of dominant influence (ADI) in January 2008.  Paper diaries will be phased out by April.  Analysis shows that core listeners, the ones that account for the majority of listening to any station, show the same listening patterns with the Personal People ­­­­ Meters (PPM) as they did diaries.  The primary exception is the 9% of listeners who overstated their usage to 25 hours or more to a single station. Not too surprising, is the PPM data that shows that more people listen to more stations than the diary method and that the listening done by employed and upper-income individuals has been understated by the diary method. The Highway Stations have shown up in significant numbers in paper diaries taken all across the L.A. A.D.I. and in Las Vegas it will be interesting to see what changes come with this new methodology. Highway Radio audience measurement has always relied on the same methods used by billboard companies, that is, total traffic counts and an even better measurement is the verified results that advertisers have been enjoying since 1980.          View Details