Backgrounder

Philadelphia’s Tourism Milestones: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

PHILADELPHIA, May 16, 2006 - The word is out about the Philadelphia region. In 2005, National Geographic Traveler named it the “next great city,” while USA Today raved that Philadelphia has gone “From Rocky to Rockin’.” The praise continued into the new year with Time magazine identifying Philadelphia as one of four cities in the world to “watch” in 2006.

Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park

Photo courtesy of the Please Touch Museum

Visitation statistics indicate that many tourists already know Philadelphia’s value as a travel destination. In fact, overnight leisure tourism has increased 55% since the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) began advertising, from 5.71 million visitors in 1997 to 8.86 million in 2005. But that’s not all. Saturday night is now the busiest night of the week for hotels in Philadelphia, with 81% occupancy in 2005. Center City is bustling thanks to the tourists visiting to the downtown area and the 88,000 residents who live here – up 12% from 2000.

The travel and tourism industry is healthy and vibrant in the Philadelphia region, but with all of the high praise comes a great challenge to keep the momentum going. As GPTMC celebrates its 10th year of building the region’s image and promoting it as a travel destination, the non-profit organization is ready to do just that.

How It All Began
In 1996, Rebecca Rimel, president and CEO of The Pew Charitable Trusts, along with then-Governor Tom Ridge, then-Mayor Ed Rendell and then-City Council President John Street identified leisure tourism as a viable replacement industry for lost manufacturing jobs and revenue. Together, the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and The Pew Charitable Trusts made a three-year, $12 million investment that gave birth to GPTMC, an organization whose mission was to market the region to potential leisure visitors. Early on, the group decided that in order to succeed the effort should be regional, promoting Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.

GPTMC’s goal was a basic one: to paint an accurate image of the region for potential visitors and to motivate them to visit. That meant investing significant funds in new photography and video b-roll, which journalists could use to tell their Philadelphia stories. It meant developing a presence on the Internet as it was just starting to take off. It meant creating a media database, conducting consumer research and planning long-term strategies. And, of course, it meant running television advertising, the first of which ran in 1997 as part of the “This Is My Philadelphia” campaign – with celebrity endorsements from Oprah Winfrey, Kevin Bacon and Nicole Miller, among others.

Early decisions about GPTMC’s scope of work proved wise. GPTMC was not designed to be a membership organization. Instead, it would be a consumer-driven marketing entity free to promote the region’s greatest assets and stories. GPTMC would give grants to promote cultural events and attractions of interest to visitors, and it would build in-house advertising, PR and Web expertise while contracting with a variety of external creative and media consultants.

Seminal Moments
In 1999, at the urging of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association, the city and state legislature approved a 1% increase in the hotel tax, a measure that helped permanently fund Philadelphia’s leisure tourism marketing efforts. The following year, the city hosted 20,000 delegates and 15,000 media representatives for the 2000 Republican National Convention.

In 2001, the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001 hurt the $100 billion U.S. travel and tourism industry, resulting in its “worst year” in terms of financial performance in 33 years, according to Mark Lomanno, president of Smith Travel Research. But Philadelphia’s recovery was swift. Mayor John Street challenged the hospitality industry to create a marketing program that would aid the region’s short-term recovery. GPTMC led the way with the development of the Philly’s More Fun When You Sleep Over® campaign, a $3.6 million effort that generated more than 37,000 room nights and $10 million in direct visitor spending in its first season alone. Extremely popular from the start, the campaign helped Philadelphia rebound faster than any other city in the U.S.

Aware that one size does not fit all, GPTMC has been committed to marketing to niche audiences since its inception. Over the years, the organization has made special outreach to African American and Hispanic visitors, college students, Canadians, cruise passengers and residents, among others. GPTMC launched one of its most high-profile campaigns in 2004 in an effort to entice gay travelers to visit. With its groundbreaking Philadelphia – Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay® spot, the city became the first destination in the world to broadcast a gay-themed television commercial. Just 18 months after the launch of the campaign, GPTMC reported that gay travelers were spending 30% more than they did before the effort debuted, up from $179 per day in 2003 to $233 a day in 2004.

What’s Drawing Visitors to the Region?
The Philadelphia region has long been home to dramatic historic sites, interactive museums, a sizzling dining scene, bumping nightlife and trendy shopping. Over the years, what was hot got hotter and what was already good got even better – a fact that became abundantly clear when MTV aired The Real World Philadelphia in fall 2004. Philadelphia is still home to the Liberty Bell, but it’s now in a bigger space and surrounded by several new attractions, including the National Constitution Center and Independence Visitor Center, which help tell the story of the nation’s founding. The Avenue of the Arts carries on as a haven for the performing arts with new spaces like The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, but it now boasts a vibrant dining, shopping and nightlife scene as well. The city’s sports teams continue to show passion and pride, but now they do it on the shinier courts and on the greener fields of Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park and the Wachovia Center.

The region’s restaurant and retail businesses are booming as well. The Center City District’s State of Center City 2006 report reveals that the downtown area is now home to 167 outdoor cafes, up 61% from 2002. Bring-your-own-bottle (BYOB) restaurants are more popular than ever too with upwards of 175 such establishments in the region, according to the 2005 Zagat Survey. Retail businesses are also expanding at a rapid pace. From 1996 to 2005, Center City District reports that the number of retail outlets downtown increased from 1,869 to 2,148. There are no signs of slowing down either, with major retailers such as BCBG Max Azaria and H&M slated to move in or expand in 2006.

Blockbuster events give visitors great reasons to visit the region now. From last year’s Live 8 and Elton John benefit concerts on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the Body Worlds and Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World exhibitions in town in 2006, the region continues to offer visitors experiences they can’t get elsewhere. GPTMC has worked with host venues to turn major exhibitions and events into region-wide celebrations. This collaborative effort worked especially well with the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Salvador Dalí exhibition in 2005. With major support from Advanta, GPTMC and the Art Museum created a marketing strategy that would immerse visitors in Surreal Philadelphia: The Dalí Experience. So successful, “The Dalí Model,” as the partnership came to be known, now serves as the foundation for many of GPTMC’s exhibition-based promotions.

What’s in Store for the Future?
It doesn’t end with Dalí though. The Andrew Wyeth exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Disney’s The Lion King at the Academy of Music, Big Cat Falls at the Philadelphia Zoo and the revitalization of Franklin Square as a legacy of Ben’s 300th birthday are just some of the highlights of 2006. In 2007, the region will welcome King Tut to The Franklin Institute, open the expanded and relocated Please Touch Museum in Fairmount Park and unveil the latest addition to the Philadelphia skyline, the 57-story Comcast Center. With funding challenges, the constantly evolving media industry and increased competition from other destinations, GPTMC’s work will not be easy. But, with consistent support from the city and state, reinvigorated civic pride and plenty going on in the years to come, the Philly’s More Fun When You Sleep Over® message will continue to promote the region as a great place to visit, play and stay.

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 www.gophila.com or call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Independence National Historical Park, at (800) 537-7676.

Note to Editors: For photos of Greater Philadelphia, visit our Photo Gallery. On the pressroom, you can also subscribe to RSS feeds to receive updates on topics that are specifically of interest to you: What’s New, Dining, Events, Seasonal Travel, Hotel Packages and Tourism Research.

CONTACT:

Jeff Guaracino, GPTMC
(215) 599-2290, jeff@gptmc.com

Anthony Malerba, GPTMC
(215) 599-2291, anthony@gptmc.com

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