(The following discussion appeared on NewsLanc’s private e-mail list.)
Visitor #1: The December 2009 issue of “Small Market Meetings” has a three-page promotional piece about the Lancaster County Convention Center…. You can find the article at these links: http://digital. smallmarketmeeti ngs.com/? site=3
Visitor #2: Project backers for years have claimed that the County attracts some 8 milion tourists a year. I have never quite understood where that number came from or why that should translate into a successful convention destination. This article now ups that claim to 11 million tourists per year. If you remember my comments from a few weeks ago, we are selling less hotel rooms in 2009 than we did before the tax went into effect to promote the County in 1999 but we are now attracting 38% more tourists?
Visitor #1: Not trying to be a wise guy, but I wonder how many of those are day trippers? Lancaster is an easy day trip from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and a long but practical day from NYC. If they are counting outlet shoppers, along with visitors to the various entertainment venues, that might explain the disparity.
Visitor #2: Clearly a large portion of our visitors are day trippers. When attractions like Dutch Wonderland and Tanger talk about having decent/good years while the numbers from the lodging industry clearly indicate an off-year, the only logical conclusion are a large component of day trippers. The issue is that we are now funding the lion share of our tourism promotion through hotel taxes so that the geograhic markets and market segments that cater to the hotel industry should be prioritized in my opinion.
Back to the number of tourists that visit Lancaster, my point is that I have never been able to understand where it comes from. Quite honestly, I think someone took it out of the air. Now, it appears to me, that those who want to make their efforts look good have arbitrarily pumped that number up another 38%. Day trip traffic may be up but it is not up that much.
