Thinking Vegas? Odds are there will be deals to be had.

Because of the slumping economy, some consumer travel websites are predicting lower prices this summer for rooms at Las Vegas hotels, such as the Palazzo (above), to entice vacationers. (ISAAC BREKKEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS/file)

Summer in Las Vegas means triple-digit temperatures and torrid travel deals. And this year, the discounts may sizzle.

That's because, reversing the trend over the last several years, Sin City's tourist business is slipping. Through March this year, gaming revenue and hotel rates dipped about 3 percent from the same period last year. Conventional wisdom blames high oil prices, the mortgage meltdown, and a sluggish US economy.

Come summer, "I'm predicting the room rates are going to be the lowest in six or seven years," said Anthony Curtis, the president of LasVegasAdvisor.com, a consumer website for visitors.

It's not that tourists have abandoned the gambling and entertainment mecca. More than 9.6 million arrived in the first quarter, a number virtually unchanged from the same period last year. But in a trend that began in 2007, they spend less while there, said Kris Tibbs, senior research analyst at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Alicia Viramontes of Hawthorne, Calif. is one such tourist.

"I couldn't resist," she said, explaining why she dropped more than $270 last month on 11th-hour plane tickets to join friends at Harrah's.

"I just had to get away. Vegas is Vegas. Everybody loves it."

Viramontes, who works in tech support for a software company, said she travels to Las Vegas about twice a year and planned to return in July for a concert.

"But I'm on a little more of a budget this time," she said. "My dinners won't be so extravagant. I'll have the chicken instead of the steak."

Sean Burke, a hairstylist from Marina del Rey, Calif., who said he parties in Vegas two or three times a year, is thinking of visiting less often because his salon business has slowed. He said he's more mindful of bargains and plans farther ahead, having booked his recent $138 round-trip ticket on Southwest Airlines a month out.

But Paul Callera of Westchester, Calif., who said he goes to Vegas for meal deals, doesn't bet that his gambling friends will hold back.

"If they want to gamble, they're going to go there," he said.

These days, though, gamblers aren't the mainstay of Vegas, where resorts made 58 percent of their money from betting in 1990 but only 42 percent last year, said Bill Lerner, senior gaming and lodging analyst for Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., a top investor in US gaming. The rest came from shows, food, shopping, and more.

Unlike Curtis of LasVegasAdvisor.com, Lerner doesn't expect rock-bottom hotel rates this summer in Vegas.

Howard Lefkowitz, president of Vegas.com, which sells Las Vegas travel, also doesn't forecast record-low rates, although he said the average room rate for advance bookings was recently down 5 percent to 8 percent compared with last year. Vegas.com is booking more rooms, tours, and packages than last year, he added.

Whatever the price picture, "there are always deals to be had," Lefkowitz said.