Mayor says Vegas hurt more than other cities by gas prices

[johnnymk]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008...es-gas-prices/

Although mayors across the country for months have been paying lip service to concerns about the fast-rising cost of gas and its effect on their constituents, most are not really all that concerned, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said at his July 3 news conference.

The reason: an increasing reliance on mass transit.

Goodman, who said he heard this at the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting held in Miami last month, noted that indeed, bus ridership was up in Las Vegas, too, which he termed “a residual good.”

But Vegas is being hurt by high gas prices much more than other cities because the cost is decreasing tourism, he said.

Specifically, in the first four months of 2008, compared with that period last year, there’s been a drop in the number of visitors driving in from Southern California. Southern Californians typically make up between one-quarter and one-third of the region’s visitors.

Statistics from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority show that while the overall number of visitors to the region was off almost imperceptibly in the first four months of the year, the number of vehicles coming from SoCal dropped by 5 percent from a year earlier.

According to LVCVA Research Director Kevin Bagger, the daily average number of vehicles coming from California to Nevada along Interstate-15 dropped from about 37,500 to 35,700. Those vehicles carried residents, visitors and commercial goods, he said.

Just as significantly, Bagger said, gaming revenue was down during that period, by 3.7 percent.

“This just emphasized for me how different Las Vegas is,” Goodman said.

[VTGreg]

I can't see Vegas being hit any harder than family destinations like Orlando/Disney World. Travel and tourism are going to be down across the board.

[ShawnLee]

I can't see Vegas being hit any harder than family destinations like Orlando/Disney World. Travel and tourism are going to be down across the board.

I can see his point actually. Being from SoCal, I know how often people love to treat it as a weekend playground. I can also see how that would drop with gas prices.

Further, Vegas is pretty much a destination to itself. There's nothing else out there that would attract people. Sure, other destinations will lose visiting populations, but at lesat those other destinations usually have local populations that are relatively near them that can visit. Vegas has none but SoCal.

[mojo]

i agree with shawnlee

when i lived in sandy eggo, i remember going there a few times because it was convenient. then that began to taper because of indian gaming.

so combine the closeness of indian gaming with the remote proximity of vegas and add gas prices and the choice becomes more clear...

[DarkFury]

Next thing you know... they'll have to subsidize the brothels there to help draw in more "tourists" lookin' for a good time.

[Maarchk]

Next thing you know... they'll have to subsidize the brothels there to help draw in more "tourists" lookin' for a good time.

terrible! haha

I agree. Vegas was a, hey, lets go to vegas thing. And when flights were cheap, it could be 60 bucks round trip to fly. now it's not even 60 bucks round trip to drive.

A couple years ago i went monthly or at least every other month. I think i went twice last year? and i've only been once this year. I just go play cards locally and yeah... just dont have much in the way of a replacement option for it.

I agree all tourism will be affected, but since such a large client base of vegas is Los Angeles people who drive and since we face the highest gas prices in the nation, my guess is Vegas will feel it first and hardest of most any destination.

[Jihforce]

probably a good time to get that high-speed rail system build from LA/OC to Vegas.

[chrissy]

Yeah, the one they have been talking about for at least a decade now? Would have loved to have actually seen something like that at least started in the 7 years we were there.

As for as MT, Vegas is screwed. A lot of people rode MT because of high insurance prices. We dropped 45% moving to OK and when we went from CA to LV in 2001 we rose 55%. A lot of people can afford the car, but not the coverage. If the city starts to see a significant rise in riders, it's going to crumble. There are not enough buses or routes in LV to smoothly get from place to place. I remember a friend who said it was faster to ride a bike the 5 miles to work than to ride the bus system because the routes were all messed.

THEN they build a metrolink type system that rides between the casinos. And that is going belly up.

They should have brought it into the community and around the valley to make it succeed.

There will always be tourists in Vegas. There was a boom in 2001-2002. And it is slowing down. It's more than gas prices, it's everything as a whole. If the average adult wants to gamble, see a show, drink 1.99 margaritas, they will find a way to get there.

[The Happy Squirrel]

I agree, gas is a huge factor, plane tickets are outrageous and gas is worse. and the thing is, is once you opay $500 in gas to get out there you dont have any money to gamble with cuase you ahve to pay $200 poer ngiht for the hotel and $500 in gas to get back thats almost $2000 killed without seeing a single show, playing one hand of blakcjack, or easting once at the $3.99 buffett. its jsut nuts!!!!!!!