[SA] In 2006, San Antonio had 26 million tourist visitors

[verbl]

I think that new york is number 1 for sure.


to trae

[Trae]

I'm thinking Orlando is.

[Raining Inside]

Instead of just guessing which U.S. cities are the most popular tourist destinations, here’s a list by Forbes of the top U.S. cities. This was put out in 2007 and Forbes doesn't have a vested interest in any particular city. The article explains the methodology used for the numbers. Obviously, different methods can be used to obtain these kinds of lists.

http://www.forbestraveler.com/best-l...ies-story.html

Here’s a list of their top 10

1. Las Vegas
2. Los Angeles
3. Orlando
4. New York
5. Chicago
6. Washington D.C.
7. Atlanta
8. San Diego
9. Houston
10. Dallas
17. San Antonio

[Complex01]

You know i really dont like these stories and lists. They all say something different from each other. They all use different numbers, but i guess it all goes back to who is writing the report. Oh well, what can you do...

[Paul in S.A TX]

Originally Posted by Raining Inside

Instead of just guessing which U.S. cities are the most popular tourist destinations, here’s a list by Forbes of the top U.S. cities. This was put out in 2007 and Forbes doesn't have a vested interest in any particular city. The article explains the methodology used for the numbers. Obviously, different methods can be used to obtain these kinds of lists.

http://www.forbestraveler.com/best-l...ies-story.html

Here’s a list of their top 10

1. Las Vegas
2. Los Angeles
3. Orlando
4. New York
5. Chicago
6. Washington D.C.
7. Atlanta
8. San Diego
9. Houston
10. Dallas
17. San Antonio

San Antonio hit 21.7 million in 2002. It has always been over the 20 million mark for a while. They don't monitor local statistics. They are a magazine. I will go with the local CVB"s. I'm sure this is where Forbes gets their info. San Antonio should be higher on the list. The next time this list is made, Forbes I'm sure will take note of the 26 million visitors.

[sakyle04]

so...san antonio gets 500,000 unique visitors a week?

i mean, that would be great, but is that even possible? can someone work out the math on how 500,000 people would stay in 35,000 hotel rooms? do people driving in from boerne to go to niosa count?

it isn't that i won't believe it. i just don't really grasp how that works. i guess it just seems high....

[KevinFromTexas]

I would definitely expect Las Vegas to be number one. I read somewhere a while back that they have more hotel rooms than any US city. Something like several tens of thousands of hotel rooms and they were tripling the existing number. Just hit up the Las Vegas construction threads sometime. The place is insane.

[verbl]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/hotelhotsh...the-usas-.html

What's the USA's most-visited city?

Not New York or Orlando, as many might think.

It's red-hot Las Vegas, according to a comprehensive new study by Forbes Traveler.com. The study took into account visitors reported by tourism bureaus and hotel stays recorded by Smith Travel Research.

Vegas logged 38.9 million visitors last year and 40 million hotel rooms sold, the study says.

That topped Los Angeles, with 25.4 million overnight visitors and 25.5 million hotel rooms sold. (Sprawling L.A. grabbed the No. 2 spot even without Anaheim, which was counted as a separate destination.)

When you consider only hotel rooms sold, Vegas' 40 million hits the jackpot, followed by the Orlando area (27.2 million), L.A. (25.5 million), Chicago (24.8 million) and New York City (23.9 million).

I'd love to see a study on which cities are the toughest for booking hotels. For me, it's always been Manhattan (limited supply of rooms, big demand) and Chicago when a big convention is in town. I remember one horrible night spent in my rental car driving from Chicago suburb to Chicago suburb passing yet another "no vacancy" sign. At midnight, I finally found a B&B that could take me.

I knew that New York had to be up there somewhere.

Again these are based on hotel sales I believe.

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by Raining Inside

Instead of just guessing which U.S. cities are the most popular tourist destinations, here’s a list by Forbes of the top U.S. cities. This was put out in 2007 and Forbes doesn't have a vested interest in any particular city. The article explains the methodology used for the numbers. Obviously, different methods can be used to obtain these kinds of lists.

http://www.forbestraveler.com/best-l...ies-story.html

Here’s a list of their top 10

1. Las Vegas
2. Los Angeles
3. Orlando
4. New York
5. Chicago
6. Washington D.C.
7. Atlanta
8. San Diego
9. Houston
10. Dallas
17. San Antonio

Their methodology is quite shotty but also it uses rooms sold.

The number I posted was the overall visitors to San Antonio. Completely different from the list you provided.

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by sakyle04

so...san antonio gets 500,000 unique visitors a week?

i mean, that would be great, but is that even possible? can someone work out the math on how 500,000 people would stay in 35,000 hotel rooms? do people driving in from boerne to go to niosa count?

it isn't that i won't believe it. i just don't really grasp how that works. i guess it just seems high....

Well, you can't look at it as being as simple at that. At 26 million visitors that's 540,000 weekly. How many are families and if so how many to that family? Also, how long is there visit? One day, two days a week? How many stay with family or friends instead of a hotel room. ETC.

[LoneStarMike]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

This is the Express-News, they are horrible with the wording in their articles.

I tend to agree with you - at least with respect to this particular article.

I *think* what the Express-News meant to say is

San Antonio's hospitality industry grew a healthy 20 percent to $10.5 billion from 2004 to '06, making it one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the city, according to a study released Wednesday.

The economic impact study also shows that yearly visitors to San Antonio increased by about 24 percent to 26 million in the two-year period since the study was last done, and the hospitality work force rose 6 percent to 100,294. That means about one in eight employees in San Antonio works in the hospitality sector.

I think the latest report is comparing the number of visitors in 2006 to the number of visitors in 2004. The number of yearly visitors has increased 24% in the two-year period since the study was last done, or about a 12% increase in the number of visitors for each of those two years. That's how I'm interpreting it, based on looking at the other links that have been posted in this thread.

Originally Posted by sakyle04

so...san antonio gets 500,000 unique visitors a week?

i mean, that would be great, but is that even possible? can someone work out the math on how 500,000 people would stay in 35,000 hotel rooms?

Not all visitors stay in hotel rooms. Heck, the last three times I've been a "visitor" in another city, it was to go visit friends and I stayed with them. Just because I didn't stay in a hotel, doesn't mean I wasn't a visitor.

At any rate, great news for San Antonio!

[sirkingwilliam]

I just wish downtown did have so many "International Drive" like hotels.

[sirkingwilliam]

The updated numbers would explain all the hotel construction around the city.

[sirkingwilliam]

test

[sirkingwilliam]

Does anyone have the latest numbers for Finance and Military?