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As reported yesterday, July-September room rates for the Las Vegas Strip are looking soft (which is bound to degrade off-Strip ADRs, obviously). One possible explanation was, indirectly, floated on this morning’s Today show. If discretionary dollars are flowing to companies, not consumers, business travelers on expense accounts will be able to sustain those rising midweek rates that we’ve been seeing.
But if Joe Average customers aren’t seeing any largesse, that bodes ill for the oft-predicted recovery that’s supposed to hit the Strip this autumn. It’s not as though consumer spending wasn’t already in retreat. That puts Las Vegas‘ future in the hands of the five million Americans making $100,000+ annually. (Small wonder Cosmopolitan rooms will cost you an arm and a leg, if the affluent class is indeed spending more.) If spending numbers keep trending in that direction, expect Echelon and every other mothballed Strip project to remain under wraps for years to come.
