The Forecast for Philly's Summer Tourism Season Looks Bright; Announcement Coincides With National Tourism Week, May 7-15

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PHILADELPHIA, May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- This summer, the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) expects the region to welcome more visitors, which would continue a five-year trend of record increases for leisure tourism in Philadelphia and Its Countryside. This positive projection is based on a new analysis by GPTMC of online travel surveys, national travel data and information contained in a new GPTMC report, "Tourism 2005: A Report to the Industry."

This announcement coincides with National Tourism Week, an annual observance to recognize the positive effect of travel and tourism on the country's economy and culture. Philadelphia's celebration of National Tourism Week takes place on Tuesday, May 10, 2005, at 5 p.m., at the Independence Seaport Museum. More than 400 members of the hospitality industry are expected to be in attendance at GPTMC's seventh annual gathering.

At tonight's event, GPTMC will release "Tourism 2005: Report to the Industry." The report is a comprehensive summary of the effort to promote Philadelphia and Its Countryside as a leisure tourism destination and includes new findings about visitation statistics and traveler spending habits. Key findings in the report include:

-- An online survey conducted by GPTMC that reveals hotel visitors are
continuing to spend more during their visit. Just this past winter,
tourists spent an average of $710 in two days on hotels, dining,
shopping and attractions, compared to just $651 last summer.
-- Travelers spent $6.34 billion (or $17 million a day) in 2003 in the
Philadelphia region, up 19.6% from 2001.
-- Total visitation to Philadelphia and Its Countryside rose 12% in
2003, while leisure visitation grew 16% to 17.9 million people.
Overnight leisure visitation increased 41% over the last five years,
from 5.59 million visitors in 1997 to 7.9 million visitors in 2003.

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) builds the region's economy and image through destination marketing to increase the number of visitors, the number of nights they stay and the number of things they do in the five-county region.

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