New Visitation and Tourism Impact Numbers for Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) released new numbers in its Tourism 2010 Report to the Region: Worth the Trip. The entire report is available for free on visitphilly.com/research. Here's a look at just some of the important statistics inside:

Who Visited In 2009?:

• 36 million domestic travelers made a trip to Greater Philadelphia in 2009.
• More than 80% of them came for a leisure purpose (to have fun).
• 52.9% of day and overnight visitors came from the Mid-Atlantic region, underscoring the region's accessibility by car. Philadelphia is within a five-hour drive of a quarter of the U.S. population.

What's The Impact Of Tourism?:

• In 2009, visitor spending in Greater Philadelphia generated $8.2 billion; that's $22 million a day.
• Tourism sustained 83,664 jobs in the region.
• Tourist dollars accounted for $1.2 billion in federal, state and local taxes. So tourism doesn't compete with other government-supported initiatives -- it helps pay for them.
• Every media dollar that GPTMC spends in media to market Greater Philadelphia as a leisure destination generates $185 in economic impact.

What's The Leisure Story?:

• In Center City Philadelphia, leisure was the only segment to show growth last year. Forecasted to be down 2%, leisure hotel room nights actually rose 3%, from 714,000 in 2008 to 735,000 in 2009.
• Since GPTMC began marketing the region as a tourist destination in 1997, leisure visitation to Center City has increased 189%.
• For the sixth year in a row, Saturday was the busiest night of the week in Center City, with hotel occupancy reaching 81% in 2009. Also for the sixth year, downtown Philadelphia's Saturday night occupancy has bested that of Baltimore, Boston and Washington, DC.

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and The Countryside^® a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases business and promotes the region's vitality.

For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit visitphilly.com or uwishunu.com, where you can build itineraries; search event calendars; see photos and videos; view interactive maps; sign up for newsletters; listen to HearPhilly, an online radio station about what to see and do in the region; book hotel reservations and more. Or, call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Historic Philadelphia, at (800) 537-7676.

SOURCE Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation

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