For once, the world’s two largest casino destinations have got something in common after arrivals increased for both destinations in July. The founding father of the casino business, Las Vegas, saw the trend of increasing arrivals continue with arrivals at McCarran International Airport up 4.9% compared with the year before. It amounted to a total of 3.7million for the month that contributed to a total of 24million for the year so far. Much of it is down to international traffic increasing and in July, that figure was 17.6% compared to the year before. Mexico and Canada were the countries to thanks for this as their airlines posted increases.
In a research report, Rodman & Renshaw analyst Robert LaFleur, wrote, “Several years of big reductions in airlift hurt the ability of Las Vegas to absorb (hotel room) additions and exacerbated the downturn. After three years of cuts, 2011 has proven to be a turnaround year.”
Projections for the rest of the year show that the trend will continue and even start to accelerate.
The enclave they passed the baton on to in the casino business league table, Macau, also saw arrivals increase in the month of July. Arrivals increased by 18% to 2.55m in the month compared to last year and most of them were the same day visitors that Macau thrives on. They accounted for 51.9% (1.32m) of the month’s visitors and are not the visitors that many on the enclave are aiming for. The country that saw the biggest increase in the amount of citizens departing for the enclave was Mainland China where the numbers rose by 287.9%.
