GOOD Economic News? Whaaa?

In economics, what goes down must go up sooner or later, right? According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's monthly data dump:

* Total rooms occupied in March is up 0.8% and year-to-date 1.4%
* Room rates even inched up 0.8% to an average of $93.23
* Auto traffic at the NV-CA border was up 6.2%
* Gaming revenues for the Strip were in 2.4% in March and -- get this -- 9.8% year to date.
* Visitation overall increased 0.7% in March, the seventh consecutive month of positive change.
* Convention attendance in March was up 5.2%, although it's still down 8.3% year to date. Evidently, though, a big tradeshow normally in April was in March this year, so it may mean nothing.

What it means: More people -- a modest amount, but Vegas must take what it can get -- are coming, they're even paying and playing a bit more, but they're driving. (Air traffic was down 4% in March.) Also, despite MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren's loftiest pre-opening predictions that CityCenter would be responsible for a large surge in visitation this year, there's no evidence of any impact whatsoever, large or small, as yet.

What it means to you: The end of the absurd bargain fire sale that has been Vegas for the past two years is within view. The rest of this year maybe the last time you ever can get Vegas this cheap again. It certainly won't be getting less expensive from here on out, except maybe in the downtown area where gaming revenues fell 10.6% in March.

On one last side note, the math continues to be spectacularly disastrous for Mesquite. Even with 9.6% fewer rooms available because of resort and tower closures, the charming Nevada-Utah border town's occupancy fell 6.5% and total room nights plummeted 15.7%.