LAS VEGAS -- When the Desert Passage shopping center at the new Aladdin opened its doors in August, it expected perhaps 50,000 visitors per day. A day shy of celebrating its two-week anniversary, the Passage announced that it had welcomed its millionth guest -- a per-diem average of nearly 77,000 people.

So it goes on the Las Vegas retail front, which is considered the most prime in the world. Projections are made, then surpassed.

"Every year, Las Vegas enjoys double-digit increases in tourism," notes Sue Gorniak, retail marketing director for Desert Passage. "The occupancy rate in hotels continues to grow and visitors continue to flock, so there's really no end in sight."

Average sales revenues in Las Vegas are $1,000 to $1,400 per square foot, compared to a national average of $350, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Overall, shoppers spent $22.5 million in Las Vegas in 1999. That was more than New York and San Francisco -- $15.5 million and $6.5 million, respectively -- combined, according to Colliers International, a real estate brokerage firm that specializes in retail on the Strip.

Such figures are not only bringing new shopping complexes to Las Vegas. Complexes that are somewhat of a fixture in the City that Never Sleeps are deciding that it's time to expand.

The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace is adding 240,000 feet of space and will grow to 740,000 square feet overall. With sales revenues of $1,400 per square foot, the Forum Shops is the top grossing mall in the country.

Opened in 1992, the Forum features hourly lighted-fountain shows with fiery statues of Roman gods and goddesses. Those shows attract tourists who want to capture the scene on film and videotape. As a result, the Forum draws about 50,000 visitors a day, or 18 million annually. About 80 percent of those visitors are tourists; the rest are local shoppers. And one-fifth of the tourists are international shoppers who will spend three times as much as the locals do.

The Fashion Show Mall, meanwhile, plans a $350 million expansion that will double its size to 1.7 million square feet. The theme's the thing there, too, of course -- developers promise that the new mall will be like walking through a giant fashion magazine. One runway, for example, will provide continual fashion entertainment. Key players in the fashion world and fashion editors are expected to stage big, inside events regularly. And grabbing attention on the exterior will be a 180-foot-high, 600-foot-by-150-foot umbrella along the Strip. It will provide shade for a plaza of restaurants and sidewalk cafes by day, and events from the Fashion Village will be projected on the jumbo bumbershoot at night.

Another major indoor shopping mall on the Strip is the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian, which features gondola rides and wandering minstrels. It, too plans to expand its space. So does the Showcase Mall, now considered a mini-mall. However, Showcase only will get mightier with another 100,000 square feet of space and its already existing and popular attractions: World of Coca-Cola, M&M World and Ethyl M Chocolates.

In addition to four major malls on the Strip, Las Vegas is home to BELZ Factory Outlet Mall, Fashion Outlet Las Vegas, Meadows Mall, Galleria at Sunset and Boulevard Mall off the Strip.

Boulevard Mall, built in the late 1960s, is Nevada's oldest and largest mall at 1.2 million square feet. Though it doesn't get as much traffic as the malls on the Strip, it still attracts 15 million shoppers a year. About six of every 10 shoppers at Boulevard are Las Vegas residents. However, in the spirit of Western hospitality, the mall each year is host to a dinner for local cab drivers and their families to show appreciation for the tourist business it does get.