29 Apr Tourism growing at robust pace in Escambia County

By Katie King – katie@ewbullock.com

April 29, 2016 –Pensacola, Fl—Visit Pensacola held its monthly Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday, April 27. March performance indicators confirm tourism is growing at a robust pace in Escambia County.

Visit Pensacola President Steve Hayes reported fiscal year-to-date (FYTD) Tourism Development Tax (TDT) collections increased by 15.6 percent over 2015. In addition, the hotel occupancy rate increased by 8 percent and hotel revenue per room increased by 11.1 percent over 2015.

Jeff Shusterman with Majority Opinion Research provided an update on visitor trends in the Pensacola Bay Area. Research shows the top key trends in 2015 include an increase in visitor spending, average daily hotel occupancy rates and visitors staying in paid accommodations. In addition, the research concludes that more visitors are choosing Pensacola as their primary destination, their experience while in Pensacola continues to improve and Visit Pensacola’s marketing communications reach expanded by nearly 30 percent in 2015.

According to the report, total direct visitor spending in 2015 totaled $849 million, an increase of 26 percent over 2014. Statistics show the average visiting party spends $2,035 per trip in the Pensacola Bay Area and the average visitor spends 8.5 nights and more than $150 a day at our local businesses.

Showcase Pensacola — a group of Pensacola advertising agencies that manage Visit Pensacola’s advertising, marketing and public relations programs — presented the results of Visit Pensacola’s recent campaigns, digital marketing efforts, and print advertising.

In total, Visit Pensacola’s overall marketing delivered nearly 8.5 million impressions, more than 50,000 visits to Visit Pensacola websites, and more than 11,000 leads from print advertising.

Showcase Pensacola also presented an overview of the upcoming Pensacola Explorer campaign, which will target families with children, and the #Pensagram campaign, a photo and video sharing contest targeting locals and visitors.

In other business, the Visit Pensacola Board also discussed tactical plan participation for Destination 2020 and unanimously approved an Events Experience Grant program which will be released to the public the first week of May.

For more information on the Visit Pensacola Board Report click here or go to: http://www.visitpensacola.org/documents/Board_Report_-_April_2016_-_Metrics_Report.pdf.