June conventions drive Philadelphia hotel occupancy to best mark since 1993
Scientists, teachers, and finance officers attending three major conventions in June helped drive Center City hotel occupancy rates to a 22-year high for the month, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau said Monday.
Scientists, teachers, and finance officers attending three major conventions in June helped drive Center City hotel occupancy rates to a 22-year high for the month, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau said Monday.
Occupancy reached 89.4 percent in June, the highest June rate since 1993, the bureau said, with hotels booked nearly to full capacity on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, at 97.9 percent and 96.4 percent, respectively.
The convention attendance boosted average daily city hotel room rates last month to $213, with the highest rates reported on Mondays, $231 a night, and Tuesdays, $232 a night.
The three big conventions here last month were the Government Finance Officers Association, with an estimated attendance of 6,000; the Biotechnology Industry Organization, with an estimated attendance of 15,858; and the International Society for Technology in Education, which drew 19,500.
Attendees and exhibitors at the three conventions, as well as other smaller conventions, spent 97,208 nights in hotel rooms, generating a third of the city's occupancy for June.
The bureau estimates that the month's total convention traffic generated an economic impact of $121 million for the region, including the cost to put on the events and the money that attendees spent while they were in town.
"June was a great month for us and for many Center City hotels," Bill Fitzgerald, general manager of the Hilton Philadelphia at Penn's Landing, said in a statement. "When the Convention Center is consistently filled is when we thrive."
In general, tourism - both leisure and business - has been trending upward in Philadelphia over the last year.
This week, the NAACP is holding its 2015 convention, which ends Wednesday, here at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Early estimates indicate an attendance of 5,000. The group is spending 11,590 nights in hotel rooms and generating $10.5 million in economic impact, the convention and visitors' bureau said.
The local hospitality industry stands to benefit from several big events, including Pope Francis' visit at the conclusion of the World Meeting of Families convention at the end of September and next year's Democratic National Convention.
These days, convention, business and leisure travelers account for about a third each in hotel occupancy, said Meryl Levitz, who leads Visit Philadelphia, the city's tourism marketing agency.
Leisure travel is "not just a gap-filler anymore," she said. "It's an equal driver to conventions."
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