Las Vegas had its best monthly visitor numbers since February 2020 in April, but there is still a long way to go to get the 2019 numbers, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Thursday.

An estimated 2.57 million tourists visited the city in April – the second consecutive month that the number of visitors exceeded 2 million.

That is 2,307.7 percent more than a year ago, but still 27.3 percent less than in April 2019.

In the first four months of 2021 there were 7.638 million visitors, 10.3 percent fewer than in April 2020 and 44.8 percent fewer than in 2019. The occupancy rate for the previous year is 48.7 percent, a decrease of 4, 8 percentage points compared to 2020 and 39.7 points compared to 2019.

Part of the drop in visitor numbers is due to the convention and exhibition industry closing in March 2020 to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The city won’t see any significant surge in convention attendance until June, when the World of Concrete show hits the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“The hotel occupancy rose to 65.6 percent, an increase of 10.1 points compared to the previous month. The weekend occupancy rose to 83.5 percent, an increase of 5.8 points compared to the previous month and within 13 points compared to April 2019, “said Kevin Bagger, vice president of the LVCVA research center.

“The occupancy during the week also rose to 57.9 percent, an increase of 10.1 points compared to the previous month, but a decrease of 31 points compared to April 2019,” he said.

Las Vegas has made steady strides in filling hotel rooms with tourists since January.

A steady increase in casino capacity since March has led to an increased number of customers in resorts with all properties to be granted 100 percent capacity on Tuesday. There is also a higher level of confidence among visitors as more and more people get the coronavirus vaccination.

Another key indicator, room prices, is slowly recovering.

An average rate of $ 109.36 per night is 9.2 percent above the average of $ 100.11 in March, 80.8 percent below the rate of $ 60.50 in April 2020, and 16.1 percent below the rate of $ 130.40 per night in April 2019.

Not every tourism indicator was weak.

As the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported earlier Thursday, game winnings in Clark County rose 7 percent from April 2019 to $ 865.5 million.

Traffic on major highways to Las Vegas is also increasing.

The average number of vehicles on all major highways per day – 136,234 – rose 7.2 percent from March, 140.3 percent from April 2020 and 8.3 percent from April 2019.

The number of vehicles traveling from California to Nevada on Interstate 15 (an average of 50,656 per day) is 10.4 percent higher than in March, 196.5 percent higher than April 2020 and 8.3 percent higher than in April 2019.

The Nevada Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the census, recognizes that some of the traffic may be locals, not tourists.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. consequences @ RickVelotta on twitter.