by Calculated Risk on 5/11/2012 01:01:00 PM

During the recession, I wrote about the troubles in Las Vegas and included a chart of visitor and convention attendance: Lost Vegas.

Since then Las Vegas visitor traffic has recovered.

From the Las Vegas Sun: Visitor volume continues steady climb, latest numbers show

Las Vegas visitor volume continued to climb in March despite a drop in convention attendance, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported Thursday.

The LVCVA said 3.5 million tourists visited the city in March, a 3.7 percent increase over March 2011. For the first quarter, visitor volume is up 3.6 percent over last year to 9.8 million, just under the pace needed to record an unprecedented 40 million visitors.

Convention attendance was down 3.9 percent to 513,010 ... Convention attendance was down despite a 34.6 percent increase in the number of conferences and meetings held (2,302).

Click on graph for larger image.

It looks like visitor traffic will set a record this year, but convention attendance is still way below the pre-recession levels. This is probably giving a boost to the hotel and gambling industry.