April Briefing 2008

Car picture

Highway Headlines ...

I-15 TRAFFIC COUNTS UP 2%

AUDIENCE SHARES NOW AVAILABLE FOR

ALL THREE HIGHWAY RADIO FORMATS

PASSENGERS PER CAR INCREASE 23%

TRAFFIC REPORT - MARCH 2008

I-15 at California/Nevada Stateline (Primm, Nevada)

For March 2008 the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) reports Average Daily Traffic at State Line/Primm in March was up 2.0% and Weekday Traffic up 3.6%; while Weekend Traffic (Saturday and Sunday) was down 0.25%. The increase in March in Average Daily Traffic brought year-to-date counts on I-15 to 3.2 million vehicles, just 27,000 vehicles short of last year's count or a decrease of just .08%.

A month-to-month comparison of March traffic at State Line/Primm is difficult because of several factors. First, with 2008 being a leap year there was an extra day's traffic in February. Second, the Easter holiday this year was on the weekend of March 21st-23rd and the Easter holiday 2007 fell on April 8th. Northbound traffic coming into Las Vegas for the 2007 holiday on Friday, the 6th and the 7th, is not available due to a malfunction of the magnetic counters at State Line/Primm. The holiday shift may have an impact on this years April count.

For the five weekends in March, northbound traffic on Friday, February 29th and Saturday, March 1st, was off 5%; the 7th and 8th up 2%; 14th and 15th down 7% and on the Easter weekend there was an increase of 4.2% with over 56,000 vehicles headed north into Las Vegas for the holiday. The fifth week, the 28th and 29th, traffic was down 7%. See traffic chart at end of email.

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

Vehicle counts going into Laughlin from U.S. 95 were down considerably from last year with Average Daily Traffic down 3.7%, Weekday off 2% and Weekend off 6.4%. On U.S. 95, measured in Searchlight, north of Nipton Road, Average Daily Traffic was down 2.4%, Weekday off a very slight 0.04%, but Weekend was down 7%. See chart below.

In March, Fridays were the heaviest days for traffic into Laughlin on Davis Dam Road, with the car count at nearly 5,000 on Friday, the 21st, preceding the Easter holiday. In order of heaviest days to lightest days into Laughlin in March, Friday was the heaviest, then Sunday. Monday through Thursday went from 3100 to 3800 per day and the lightest days in March, with the exception of the Saturday before Easter, were Saturdays. Year to date traffic on Davis Dam Road is down 5.4%.

Mesquite, Nevada (200 feet north of the East Mesquite interchange)

The counters at Mesquite are located at the Arizona/Nevada border so that they do not measure traffic from the south going into Mesquite, nor is there any measurement of southbound going into Mesquite. The NDOT report shows Average Daily Traffic down 1.8%, Weekday traffic 0.7%, and Weekend down 4.2%. See chart below. The heaviest days for traffic on this stretch of I-15, in order of rank from the highest to the lowest, are 1) Friday, 2) Saturday, 3) Sunday and Thursday are tied, 5) Monday, 6) Tuesday. Year-to-date traffic is off 1.8%.

GAMING REVENUE REPORT - FEBRUARY 2007 For the second month in a row, gaming win was down throughout Clark County and the state. The exception in Clark County was Laughlin. The river casinos registered an increase in market share (percentage of statewide gaming win) up to 5.6% from 5.4% last year and the win just even with last year. The biggest decrease came on the Strip with win down 3.1%; share up slightly to 54.9% from 54.5% last year. The Strip still holds onto a 1.6% gain in the trailing twelve months. Downtown win was off 0.3%, but share was up to 5.0% from 4.8% last year and Downtown holds onto a slight advantage with an increase of 0.87% in the trailing twelve months. Clark County was down 3.9% with share at 85.4% versus 85.5% last year, but win is still ahead in the trailing twelve months, up 1.3%. Statewide was down 3.8% and holding to a 1% increase in the trailing twelve months.

McCARRAN AIRPORT REPORT- MARCH 2008 Total arriving and departing passengers through Las Vegas McCarran was down 1.7% in March 2008, compared with March 2007, still the total topped 4.1 million. Year-to-date total is off 0.5%. A great deal of this drop comes from U.S. Airways. The airline discontinued their late night connecting flights for a 23.7% drop in March passengers and is off 22.3% YTD. Among the top five scheduled carriers, Delta was up 0.1% and has an increase of 7% YTD. Leading the pack is the low price economy carrier, Southwest, carrying 1.4 million passengers for a 4.3% March increase and 5.3% YTD. United was down 12.1% in March and is trailing 8.8% YTD. American Airlines has now dropped to below 200,000 passengers per month and was off 0.2% in March and is flat YTD. Scheduled carriers out of Terminal #1 were off 1.3%, charters out of Terminal #1 down 98.2% YTD due largely to a 97% decline in March. Charter carriers out of Terminal #2 were up 33% but that total has little impact on the airport with just 31,800 total passengers.

HIGHWAY RADIO NOW REPORTS AUDIENCE SHARES In December 2007 Mobile Trak Technology installed devices on I-15 near Yermo that recorded radio listening by travelers, passing on the highway. A second unit, north of Baker at Halloran Summit, was added in February. Both units are up and operating now. Reports from these listener monitors will be carried in the Briefing showing the audience share from Highway Stations FM 98/99, Highway Country and The DRIVE in each of the two locations, as well as listening to other stations in each area. These statistics will be broken down by weekend and weekday and further detail and breakdowns on each of the stations are available from account executives. Call the Las Vegas office at 702-737-9899.

It is interesting to note that there is a 27% increase in audience share as the travelers get closer to Las Vegas. The Baker monitors report Highway Radio garners a 54% share on weekends and a 54.8% on weekdays, while Yermo has a 39% share and a 40% share on weekdays. Weekend of other stations at Baker stands at 13.3% and 11.7% on weekdays and at Yermo other stations get 6.7% on weekends and 6% on weekdays. This summary will be carried in the Briefing each month.

Mobil Graph C

ANALYZING SURFACE AND AIR TRANSPORTATION AND ITS IMPACT ON LAS VEGAS TOURISM A great deal has been made of raw statistics from McCarran International and surface traffic counts coming into Las Vegas, but while this may be a good indicator, changes in the economy and other factors have to be calculated. The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), based on the current recession and the experience of 9/11 has found that under difficult economic circumstances travelers usually use ground transportation for any destination within 300 miles. Travelers often limit vacations to places within that distance.

Historically 20% of all traffic crossing the Nevada/California state line on I-15 is traveling to destinations beyond Las Vegas. Therefore, the traffic statistics at Mesquite are off considerably less than those at State Line, which would indicate a decline in long distance travel. Further, merchants along I-15 in Barstow and Victorville, as reported in last month's Briefing, are "having the best year yet". This includes both fast food and casual restaurants as well as some tourist attractions such as Calico Peak and the discount malls in Barstow .

It is difficult to analyze the airport statistics in that there are no reliable figures on how many arriving or departing passengers are through passengers. Both U.S. Airways and Southwest use Las Vegas' McCarran as a major hub but they will not release any statistics on how many passengers are through passengers. If a passenger is merely changing planes in Las Vegas he/she is counted as both an arriving and a departing passenger.

Perhaps, the most reliable count is the actual visitor count and the on-going statistic that 54% of all visitors to Las Vegas arrive by surface transportation versus 46% by air. The increase in visitor counts in February can be accounted for by the extra day which brought about a 3.1% increase that month. The truly accurate analysis comes from gaming win, occupancy and the average daily rate charged by Las Vegas hotels.

TRAFFIC MAY BE DOWN, BUT PASSENGER PER CAR IS UP In the research done two years ago average passengers per car on I-15 was up to 3.2 persons per car, from the longstanding average of 2.6. "This is a 23% increase" according to President Vic Matera of Marketing Focus. The increase in passengers per car would calculate out an actual increase in people traveling on the highway even though traffic counts are down slightly.

CALIFORNIA TOPS MIGRATORY STATES California leads all other states in number of in-migrations to Nevada, supplying 1.4% of all new move-ins, according to a report by "Recruiting Nevada", with Michigan 2nd at 8% and New York third with 6%. Also included in the presentation was the fact that 145,000 new jobs are being created in Las Vegas, just within the projects that are already in construction.

SATELLITE SUBSCRIBERS NOT COMMITTED TO KEEPING THE SERVICE Jacobs Media Tech Survey IV, a web survey of more than 27,000 respondents of 69 radio stations, found that many current satellite customers are "not committed to continuing with either XM or Sirius". Forty-one percent of the XM and Sirius customers surveyed said they decided to belong on their own, while 32% said satellite radio came with their vehicles and 20% received it as a gift. Seven percent heard XM or Sirius as part of a satellite or cable package. Forty percent of those who received satellite with their car say they will continue to use it through the year end while 17% say they are not sure if they will continue.

Meanwhile, the long pending merger of XM and Sirius, approved by the Department of Justice, is still awaiting a decision from the FCC, which isn't much of a motivator for non-subscribers to sign up, according Jacobs Media.

NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION MARCH 2008 TRAFFIC SUMMARY
	AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC¹	WEEKDAY ²	WEEKEND ³
I-15 NEV/CA STATELINE (PRIMM, NEVADA)	2.0%	3.6%	-0.25%
I-15 MESQUITE	-1.8%	0.7%	-4.2%
SR 163 LAUGHLIN - Davis Dam Rd.	-3.7%	-2%	-6.4%
US 95 AT SEARCHLIGHT (SR 164)	-2.4	-0.04%	-7%

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