|
|
|
Highway
Headlines ...
CELL PHONE PENETRATION NOW AT 90%
ON I-15
NEW HOTEL/CASINOS
TARGET HIGH END PLAYERS
POLITICAL SPENDING DEPENDS ON LOCAL MARKET
MEDIA | | |
|
TRAFFIC REPORT -
NOVEMBER
2007
I-15 at California/Nevada Stateline
(Primm, Nevada)
Average Daily Traffic as measured by the Nevada
Department of Transportation (NDOT) was down 2%,
weekdays (Monday through Thursday) off .4.3% and
weekends (Saturday/Sunday) down 2.2%.
Vehicle counts into Las Vegas on northbound
I/15 for the Thanksgiving holiday showed a decline of 7%
and for the non-holiday weekends northbound traffic on
Friday, the 2nd and Saturday, the 3rd, was down 3%; up
15% on the 9th and 10th; and down 13% on the 16th and
17th. The heaviest day on I-15 was Sunday,
followed by Friday, Saturday and Thursday. And the
lightest days were in order: Wednesday, Monday and
Tuesday. Year-to-date I-15 vehicle counts are up
0.7%.
Laughlin, Nevada (SR163, Davis Dam
Road) and U.S. 95 (Searchlight, .5 miles north of
SR 164, Nipton Road)
Weekday traffic on Davis Dam Road was up 1.8%,
but the NDOT report for both SR 163 and US 95 showed
declines in all the other categories. On Davis Dam
Road Average Daily Traffic was up 2.9% and Weekends off
8%. The US 95 monthly Average Daily Traffic was
down 4.8%, off 2.2% on Weekdays and 8.2% on
Weekends. As previously reported travelers from
both California and Arizona may be proceeding on
Interstate 40 to the newly improved Needles Highway and
then going north into Laughlin.
Mesquite, Nevada (200 feet north of
the East Mesquite interchange)
Reports from the NDOT on these magnetic
counters NORTH of Mesquite off-ramps showed Average
Daily Traffic down .3%, Weekday traffic up .5% and
Weekend down .4%.
| | |
|
GAMING REVENUE REPORT - OCTOBER 2007
The Las Vegas Strip reported a 19.8%
increase in gaming win, primarily due to a $108
million win in baccarat for a 340% increase over
the previous October. This lifted the
Strip's market share (percentage of statewide
gaming win) to 54.8% vs. 50.1% last year and put
the Strip in a position of leading both the state
and Clark County in gaming win with a 7.6%
increase vs. 5.3% for the State and 6.2% for Clark
County. The win on the Strip lifted Clark
County to a 12.5% increase and the share was
up to 86%. Statewide revenue was up
9.6%. The other venues in the county did
not do as well. Downtown win was up 7%, with
share dropping to 5.2% from 5.6% last year and
gaming win in the trailing twelve months up
.7%. Laughlin win was down 2.3%, share was
up slightly to 4.6% from 4.1% last year and
increase in win in the trailing twelve months is
up .4%.
McCARRAN AIRPORT REPORT-
OCTOBER 2007 Total
arriving and departing passengers in October were
virtually even with last year; showing a .1%
increase and holding the year-to-date (YTD) total
at 4.2 YTD, scheduled airlines are up 4.1% out of
Terminal #1. The five leading scheduled
carriers showed some changes, Southwest up 4.1%,
Delta up 3.2%, Continental up 1.6%. U.S.
Airlines was up 21%, United down 4%. YTD all
of the airlines, with the exception of United,
show increases for the year, with the leader being
Delta at 6.3% and the others falling behind that
figure.
CELL PHONES
BRING MAJOR CHANGE TO MARKETING STRATEGY
Ninety percent of the travelers
headed for Las Vegas on Interstate 15 have cell
phones and this is making a dramatic change in
many purchasing patterns. Major hotels have
reported to Highway Radio a major increase in
walk-in business. Travelers are sampling
offers made for entertainment, food, lodging and
shopping while in route.
A recent survey by Highway Radio
revealed that 50% of the travelers would
change their room reservation if they heard a
better offer. This coincides with the
increase in same-day reservations that hotels are
reporting.
The net result is a far more competitive
market. The old pattern was "fill up the
rooms" and "people will play where they
stay". This no longer seems to be the model
and the new fight is for market share and top of
the mind awareness.
The Vice President/Marketing for
one of the major hotels in Las Vegas stood under
the front entrance at about 6:00 p.m. one
evening and watched his hotel guests getting
in cabs and going to other properties which meant
the loss of both restaurant and gaming
revenue. Historically, the LVCVA research
has shown that 57% of a visitor's gaming time is
spent away from the property where they
stayed. This, once again, points out the
importance of brand identity and top-of-the-mind
awareness and the closer to the point of purchase
a visitor gets the message the more likely
"top-of-the-mind" awareness will be. 2008 is
going to be an interesting year as major changes
in visitor dynamics occur.
|
| POLITICAL SPENDING
DEPENDS ON LOCAL MARKET MEDIA
In spite of all the
talk about huge increases in internet
advertising, politicians have long survived on
the slogan that "all politics are local".
Television and radio are expected to grab close
to 80% of all political spending; newspaper,
internet and outdoor are not yet taking
hold on the political arena, their
combined shares being less than 6%.
Radio is expected to be ahead of 2004 in terms
of revenue and it will come in ahead of 2006 in
terms of raw dollars and will be third venue of
choice behind TV and direct
mail. |
|
RADIO LISTENING AS REPORTED BY
ARBITRON Radio listening, as reported by
Arbitron is reaching 233 million listeners
weekly including 82% of all people twelve and
older. Radio reaches 95% of adults 18-49
with college degrees and household of $50,000 or
more. |
| '07
VISITOR COUNT SLIGHTLY AHEAD OF
'08
The LVCVA summary through October shows a growth
in visitor volume of .8%, with convention
attendance down 1.5%. Hotels have been
very aggressive in increasing average daily room
rates with monthly increases as high as 21% and
a year-to-date average of
12.3%. |
| | | |
|
OVER EIGHT THOUSAND ROOMS
AIM AT HIGH END PLAYERS
|
2008 will see in excess of
8,000 new rooms available in Las Vegas. The
5,000 rooms at the Venetian's new Palazzo will
add 1,825,000 room nights per year to the
Strip's inventory. The majority of the new
rooms coming in will be aimed at the high end of
the market. Encore, at the Wynn, will
have room rates in excess of $500 a
night. This change has come about after
hotel planners found that the casino revenue
produced by a low end customer doesn't justify the
cost of the new rooms and, therefore, aiming that
the high end customer is a better strategy.
The result will be that many properties previously
considered high end will be forced into the medium
customer range and this, in turn, will force
the medium priced hotels to go after the low end
customer. Low end rooms now look at a rate
of $100-$125 a night, which five years ago would
have been looked at as expensive. The
trend will probably continue as additional hotels
are approved, including Crown Las Vegas, which was
approved by the Clark County Commission and will
be the tallest hotel building in the United
States. The Stratosphere Tower will be
slightly taller but it doesn't have hotel rooms in
the actual tower. The Crown will have as
many as 5,000 rooms and will be built on the
former Wet 'n Wild site.
Caesars Palace also seems to be jumping
in the fight for the high roller market. The
$1 billion expansion, including a new 665 room
tower with three new pool villas. Another
aspect of this changing picture came recently when
a Strip hotel was destroyed and an adjacent
property found a major drop in walk-in traffic,
which had not been anticipated.
|
 | | |
| NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
NOVEMBER 2007
TRAFFIC SUMMARY |
|
|
AVERAGE DAILY
TRAFFIC1 |
WEEKDAY
2 |
WEEKEND
3 |
|
I-15 NEV/CA STATELINE
(PRIMM, NEVADA) |
-2% |
-4.3% |
-2.2% |
|
I-15 MESQUITE |
-3% |
.5% |
-.4% |
|
SR 163 LAUGHLIN - Davis Dam
Rd. |
2.9% |
1.8% |
-8% |
|
US 95 AT
SEARCHLIGHT
(SR 164) |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
1. Percentage increase
(decrease) in average daily traffic northbound and
southbound divided by the total number of days of
the month.
2. Percentage increase
(decrease) in total traffic northbound and southbound
Monday through Thursday divided by the
number of days of the month.
3. Percentage
increase (decrease) in total traffic northbound and
southbound for Saturday and Sunday divided by the number
of days of the
month
| | |
|
|
|
| |
