October proved prosperous for Washoe tourism

The greater Reno-Sparks area’s tourism interests continued their robust ways in October as taxable room revenues and visitation numbers showed solid year-over-year rises.

Reports from the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority showed visitor counts across Washoe County rose by 6 percent compared with October 2016.

In addition, visitor totals for the first 10 months of 2017 showed a 5.3 percent rise from the same period a year earlier.

As another sign of the region’s robust tourism industry, just one month so far in 2017 showed a decline in visitors from a year earlier, February, with a small 1.8 percent drop.

October’s rise, coupled with September’s 4 percent increase in visitors, followed a robust summer packed with special events.

At the same time, October’s average room rate for the hotel sector, which accounts for nearly 70 percent of all available rooms, surpassed $100 for the first time, topping out at $101.48, according to RSCVA data. That was up 7 percent from October 2016.

Another key improvement was occupancy. The occupancy rate for hotels in October surpassed 72 percent, besting October 2016’s rate of 67.4 percent for a 7.1 percent improvement year over year, according to the RSCVA.

All of which helped to propel October’s total taxable room revenues countywide by 14.2 percent over the prior year, or a total of $29.12 million.