Here are the most recent average daily visitor counts from VegasMadeEasy.com as of January 20, 2009.  A percent change was added to show how much traffic has fallen.  The average daily visitor count is a more accurate way of looking at Vegas visitors since months have different days.

If you remember, 9/11 caused 5 straight months of negative year to year visitor counts.  So far we are at 6 straight months of falling visitor numbers.  There were some really strong promotions from the big strip hotels in November 2008 which helped a little.

Here is a quick snapshot of the average tourist according to LVCVA.com numbers for 2007.  They usually report numbers with about a 2 1/2 months lag. 

The average budget set aside for gambling has been dropping since 2006 and 2008 looks like a really bad year.  For 2008 as of November, Downtown is down -7.3%, the strip is -9.3% and all of Clark County is off -9.0%.  The strip is still the most important area at almost 63% of all gaming. 

The decline has been getting worse so you are seeing an average of the better months plus the most recent.  November was off 15.2% versus last year’s November for example.

The LVCVA’s numbers for year to date as of November show the average daily room rate to have dropped 9.5% to $121.01 from $133.76.  Hotel and Motel occupancy rates are 87.1% and 91.0% which are both down 3.9 and 3.6% from the last 12 months ending November.