Record Tourism Recorded for Jacksonville

[KenFSU]

The word's really starting to get out about Jacksonville.

Awesome news.

Visit Jacksonville reports record-breaking tourism visitation numbers in 2018

Hotel revenue and bookings for the months of January, February and March have been the highest ever recorded, according to recent Visit Jacksonville data.

Total hotel revenue in those months was up $12 million from the first quarter in 2017, and hotel occupancy was up 3.5 percent over last year.

The tourism company also reported March 2018 as the best month on record in Jacksonville, beating all previous records – even those set in the Super Bowl. Hotel occupancy ended up at 82.2 percent in March, 2.4 percent higher than in 2017.

During the Super Bowl, data for Duval County occupancy was 81.1 percent, the highest for Jacksonville until now.

"I think there's a few factors for this," said Visit Jacksonville VP of Marketing Katie Mitura. "People are investing more in image of Jacksonville and in advertising. The business climate is great, and we had great weather in the first quarter, so spring breakers took the trip here this year. And conventions are up again. More people are aware of Jacksonville and what's here."

Full story: https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2018/05/07/visit-jacksonville-reports-record-breaking-tourism.html

[Captain Zissou]

This should support the cases for the many proposed hotel developments downtown.  Great news

[Tacachale]

I'm not surprised, it's been trending this way for years. Just need to get some of that energy channeled downtown.

This is an interesting quote:

Tourism in Jacksonville generates $3.2 billion annually, said Visit Jacksonville Board Chair Bill Prescott.

"These remarkable numbers represent a reality that many in Jacksonville are not aware of, tourism is a vital economic engine for our city," Prescott said.

We tend not to think about tourism in Jacksonville because it's dwarfed by other parts of the state. But combine that with at least $1 billion in St. Johns County and half a billion in Nassau each year, it's a pretty robust number. If we weren't in Florida, it would be more noticeable.

[Kiva]

I'm not surprised, it's been trending this way for years. Just need to get some of that energy channeled downtown.

We have an Airbnb very close to downtown. This month we have only two days free. It is the same with the Airbnbs near us. People are definitely interested in staying near downtown.

[I-10east]

Awesome!

[Sonic101]

Something in addition that Jax should capitalize

https://www.curbed.com/2018/5/1/17306978/career-millennial-home-buying-second-city

The new magnetism of mid-size cities

... Growth isn't evenly spread across the country, with hard-hit areas of the Rust Belt still struggling with population loss, and new arrivals and developments can lead to rising housing costs. But the economies of many smaller metros continue to grow and diversify. Louisville added 2,500 new businesses and 70,000 over the last six years, including a 53 percent jump in what the Brookings Institution called "advanced industries jobs," all while home prices remained relatively affordable (compare the city's median home value of $153,802 to Chicago's $226,073). It's helped make Louisville one of the leading larger cities when it comes to millennial homeownership.