Discover The Palm Beaches (DTPB), the official tourism marketing corporation for Palm Beach County, has announced record-breaking visitation numbers for 2016. DTPB’s year-end hotel performance dashboard data shows a higher-than-forecasted 7.35 million visitors came to The Palm Beaches from January to December, which is a 5.8% visitation increase over 2015.
“We had a historic number of visitors come to The Palm Beaches in 2016, a remarkable eight years in a row of visitation growth since the Great Recession,” said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO for DPTB. “This is powerful testimony that tourism marketing works.”
The total increase in visitation was driven by a 7% increase in domestic visitors (United States), and a 7.3% increase in Florida-based visitors, compared to 2015. The largest domestic growth markets were New York with a 5% increase, Miami/Fort Lauderdale with an 11% increase, and Orlando with a 9% increase in visitors. Most of the visitors to The Palm Beaches (6.6 million) were domestic, while 739,000 visitors came from international regions including Canada, Western Europe and Latin America. The number of hotel room nights sold, 4.4 million, was a 2.3% increase over the previous year.
“These numbers validate our targeted marketing focus in cities like New York, Washington DC, Orlando, and Miami. They also show the increasing importance of meeting and convention sales, as well as sports events, to fill the occupancy gaps in summer and fall,” Pesquera continued. “Tourism is Palm Beach County’s number one non-agricultural industry, so it’s more important than ever that we continue to promote and sell this destination.”
In December, DTPB deployed a strategic promotional effort in key markets, such as New York and Miami, which contributed to strong visitation from those areas. The original number of visitors DTPB was projecting for 2016, 7.2 million, ended up being boosted by December’s visitation increase. That brought the record-high total of visitors to 7.35 million for the entire year.
“Thanks to our tourism partners and sister Tourism Development Council agencies in Sports, Culture, and Film/TV, as well as our continued refinement of tourism marketing strategies, we’re able to attract more visitors than ever before,” Pesquera said. “This allows us to deliver on our brand promise that The Palm Beaches are the best way to experience and meet in Florida.”
See also: a stunning video to Discover The Palm Beaches as the perfect place in Florida to travel to.
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7.3 million people can’t be wrong! 2016 saw a Record-Breaking visitation in The Palm Beaches with higher-than-forecasted 7.35 million visitors.
