March is usually the strongest month of the year for visitors in Mesquite. But, the City seems to have outdone itself this year.

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority monthly report for March, 105,494 people pulled into town and stayed awhile. That's the highest visitor count for any month since March and April 2009 with 113,378 and 105,049 visitors respectively.

It was an increase of 6.3 percent over the visitor volume count for March 2011 when 99,231 people came for a stay. While there were no three-day holiday weekends to account for some of the increase like there was in January and February, it's the usual time of year for Spring vacations.

Bryan Dangerfield, Director of Athletic Services, attributed some of the visitor volume increase to a Long Drivers of America golf competition, baseball camps, Collegiate Club baseball tournaments, motocross and lacrosse events that brought people to Mesquite.

The March surge put the visitor count up 3.6 percent for the year over the same period in 2011.

However, the downward trends in Total Occupancy and Total Room Nights Occupied continued. Both numbers have been in decline since last May and June.

In March the Total Occupancy rates for local hotels dropped 2.3 percent from March 2011 while the Total Room Nights Occupied also fell 2.7 percent from the same period a year ago. Those numbers are an indication of how many people stay overnight in Mesquite and for how long.

On the up side, the Total Occupancy rate for March was a whopping 90.9 percent, up significantly from February's 78.5 percent and January's paltry 68.9 percent. Comparing the Total Room Nights Occupied actual count of 49,680 for March against February's 40,135 and January's slim 37,655 had to make hoteliers happy.

Looking at the Year-to-Date numbers puts the Total Occupancy on a 5.0 percent decline and the Total Room Nights Occupied on a 5.1 percent downward trend.

While the numbers indicate visitors weren't sleeping over that long in Mesquite, people were plunking down a lot of money in the casinos. The Gross Gaming Revenue for March increased significantly by 7.2 percent from March 2011 to $12,792,000.

The last time gaming revenues climbed into that range was March 2009 when casinos took in $12,381,000.

Overall, Gross Gaming Revenue is up 5.1 percent Year-to-Date from this time last year. It's the seventh straight month of positive increases for the gaming industry in Mesquite.

The Average Daily Auto Traffic at the Nevada/Arizona border dropped 6.4 percent from March 2011 to 21,356 vehicles. That puts the Year-to-Date average down 2.5 percent.

(All numbers courtesy of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority)