Las Vegas: Feasts and flowers for Lunar New Year

While the new year holiday falls on Feb. 10, some of the offerings are under way already and will continue through much of February. Las Vegas also hosts a three-day Chinese New Year in the Desert festival downtown, Feb. 8-10, and a one-day event in the city's Chinatown neighborhood on Feb. 17.

Asians and Asian-Americans are an important and growing demographic in Las Vegas, in terms of both residential population and tourism. More than 6 percent of the 589,000 people who live in Las Vegas are Asian, according U.S. Census estimates. About 3 percent of the city's 39 million annual visitors — totaling over a million people a year — are Asian or Asian-American, according to the 2011 Las Vegas Visitor Profile Study. International tourists include 188,000 annual airport arrivals from China, 132,000 from Korea and 107,000 from Japan, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, with even more flying into California airports and heading to Las Vegas by bus or car.

While Asian tourists visit Las Vegas throughout the year, the period surrounding the lunar new year holiday is a particularly popular time for leisure travel, especially among China's growing middle class. "They want to leave their homes and go travel during holidays," said Jan-Ie Low, who is helping to organize the Chinese New Year in the Desert festival in partnership with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Fremont Street Experience. She said that according to tradition, if you travel during the new year holiday, "it's a sign that you're going to be doing this the whole year."

This is the second year for the Chinese New Year in the Desert festival. Cultural performances are scheduled for the Third Street Stage on Feb. 8 from 5 p.m.-10 p.m., and on Feb. 9 and 10, noon to 9 p.m. A dragon dance Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. will kick off with virtual fireworks on the 90-foot-high (27- meter) LED display canopy at Fremont Street Experience, the downtown pedestrian mall and entertainment area. A parade with floats steps off at 8 a.m. on Feb. 10. The festival also includes food vendors and other activities and events.

Las Vegas' Chinatown is not a historically ethnic residential neighborhood like Chinatowns in New York or San Francisco. But it is a commercial area worth visiting for Asian restaurants and businesses, located along Spring Mountain Road west of the Las Vegas Strip. The Chinatown Year of the Snake festival takes place Feb. 17, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., with cuisine from around Asia, arts and crafts, and performances drawing on a variety of traditions, including Chinese lion and dragon dances, martial arts, Japanese taiko drummers and Polynesian dance.