Las Vegas to set new visitor record in 2015: authority

Dec 31, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World  

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Las Vegas is poised to set a new annual record for tourist arrivals in 2015, with more than 42 million visitors, according to estimates from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

That would break last year’s record of 41.1 million, the first time the gaming destination had ever topped 40 million arrivals, the authority said in a release on Wednesday.

Official visitor numbers will be announced next month. In the first 11 months of 2015, the city welcomed close to 39.1 million visitors, an increase of 2.8 percent year on year.

Las Vegas, in the state of Nevada, is the main casino hub in the United States. Casinos in the city’s premium Strip district recorded gaming revenue of US$6.3 billion for the first 11 months of 2015, according to official data. That represented a decrease of 2.8 percent compared with the same period last year.

“Las Vegas couldn’t have reached this [new tourist arrival record] without the support of our resort partners,” said Rossi Ralenkotter, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, in a statement.

The authority’s release stated that two of the reasons for the increase in visitor arrivals were: the several new non-stop flights to the city launched in 2015; and increased attendance at conventions in the city.

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