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  #1  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 5:43 AM
dragonsky dragonsky is offline
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America's 30 Most Visited Cities

America's 30 Most Visited Cities

1. Las Vegas, Nev.
38.9 million visitors; 40 million rooms sold. Total weighted score: 4.48
2. Los Angeles, Calif.
58.6 million (25.4 million overnight + 33.2 estimated day visitors); 25.5 million rooms sold; score: 4.22
3. Orlando, Fla.
47.8 million visitors; 27.2 million rooms sold; score: 3.90
4. New York City, N.Y.
44 million visitors; 23.9 million rooms sold; score: 3.52
5. Chicago, Ill.
41.3 million (2005); 24.8 million rooms sold; score 3.47
6. Washington, D.C. metro area
36.9 million; 22.8 million rooms; score: 3.15
7. Atlanta, Ga.
37 million visitors; 21.5 million rooms sold; score: 3.05
8. San Diego, Calif.
32.2 million visitors (2005); 14.2 million rooms sold; score: 2.33
9. Houston, TX
31 million; 14.5 million rooms sold; score: 2.31
10. Dallas, TX
22.3 million visitors (2005); 15.9 million rooms sold; score: 2.05
11. Philadelphia, Pa.
27.7 million (2005); 10.2 million rooms sold; score: 1.86
12. Phoenix, Ariz.
21.7 million (12 million overnight plus 9.7 estimated day visitors); 13.1 million rooms sold; score: 1.75
13. Anaheim, Calif.
18.4 million visitors; 13.9 million rooms sold; score 1.61 (tie)
13. San Francisco, Calif.
15.8 million visitors; 13.4 million rooms sold; score: 1.61 (tie)
13. Miami, Fla.
19.7 million (11.6 million overnight + 8.1 estimated day visitors): 11.2 million rooms sold; score: 1.61 (tie)
16. Boston, Mass.
17.6 million (2005); 11.7 million rooms sold; score 1.56
17. San Antonio, TX
20 million; 8.3 million rooms sold; score: 1.41
18. St. Louis, Mo.
20.3 million visitors; 7.9 million rooms sold; score: 1.39
19. Tampa Bay, Fla.
16.9 million visitors; 9.6 million rooms sold; score: 1.38
20. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
18.3 million visitors; 8.3 million rooms sold; score: 1.34
21. Seattle, Wash.
15.7 million (9.4 million overnight visitors + 6.3 estimated day visitors); 9.4 million rooms sold; score: 1.32
22. Indianapolis, Ind.
21.7 million visitors (2005); 6 million rooms sold; score: 1.31
23. Detroit, Mich.
15.9 million visitors; 8.3 million rooms sold; score: 1.24
24. Austin, TX
19 million visitors; 6.4 million rooms sold; score: 1.23
25. Denver, Colo.
14.5 million (11.7 million overnight visitors + 2.8 estimated day visitors); 8.7 million rooms sold; score: 1.22
26. Charlotte, N.C.
16.6 million visitors (2005); 6.9 million rooms sold; score: 1.17
27. Nashville, Tenn.
13.5 million (10.5 million overnight visitors + 3 million estimated day visitors); 8 million rooms sold; score: 1.12 (tie)
27. Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.
16.5 million visitors; 6.3 million rooms sold; score: 1.12 (tie)
29. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
12.3 million (10.4 million overnight visitors + 1.9 estimated day visitors); 7 million rooms sold; score: 1.00
30. Baltimore, Md.
12 million visitors; 6.6 million rooms sold; score: 0.99

http://www.forbestraveler.com/2007/0...701_story.html
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  #2  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 6:14 AM
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umm i don't really get how the score works. shouldn't it be by people visiting yearly?
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  #3  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 1:04 PM
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I always figured D-land was factored into LA travel stats, but given that Anaheim is listed separately and has the same rank as SF shows what an impact that branded amusement park has. Anaheim probably has a small amount of business travel but is there any other leisure-related reason to stay in Anaheim?

Here is their methodology

Before you place your bets on Forbes Traveler’s U.S. Most Visited Cities, a word about methodology: we started with two separate rankings based on two different sets of data, and then combined those lists for our final score. For our first ranking, we used the numbers from cities’ convention and visitors bureaus. These numbers are usually calculated based on factors like airport and cruise traffic, bed tax collections, attraction visitor counts and event figures. While most cities report overnight and day visitors, some report only overnight visitors. To correct for this, we augmented these overnight-only numbers with an estimate of day visitors (either provided by the convention and visitors bureaus or, where that was not available, by calculating our own estimate based on figures from another city of comparable size and geography). We have noted where day-visitor estimates were added to convention and visitor bureau numbers. A visitor is defined as one who travels 50 miles or more each way, omitting commuters. Cities are the Metropolitan Standard Areas as defined by the U.S. Census bureau, unless otherwise noted.

Because of the variability inherent in the numbers from visitors bureaus (they’re self-reported by the cities, which may use different sources and methodologies, and 2006 numbers are not yet available at all locales, for example), we looked at another, independent set of numbers: Smith Travel Research (STR) provided data on hotel rooms sold for the year 2006 in the major U.S. metro markets.

Our final list combines these two rankings and adjusts for overnight and day-trip reporting disparities. We weighted each list equally,by dividing each city's visitor and hotel-room number by the average in each category. (The average visitor number in the self-reported visitor category number was 24.8 million; the average in STR’s rooms sold list was 13.7 million.) We then added these two scores to give each city its final score. So, for example, Orlando’s convention and visitor’s bureau reported 47.8 million visitors for 2006. The category average was 24.8 million, giving Orlando a score in the “visitor” column of 1.93 above the average. In the “rooms sold” category, STR reported that Orlando sold 27.2 million rooms in 2006. The category average was 13.7, giving Orlando a score in the “rooms sold” category of 1.98 above the average. Orlando’s final score, then, is 1.93 plus 1.98, or 3.91, putting it in third place overall behind the number one city, which received a 4.5 total. (Click to the slide show to find out which took the #1 spot).
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Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 3:36 PM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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I don't know how much of the travel in Anaheim is related to Disneyland alone. The Anaheim Convention Center hosts a lot of trade shows and conventions (Anime Expo being one of the larger draws), but then again, its right across the street from mouse land.
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  #5  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 6:29 PM
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I'm having trouble believing that San Diego gets way more visitors than San Francisco. I guess the numbers would include people who drive down there for the day from LA and OC? I still wouldn't think that that would tip the scales...
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Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 6:39 PM
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^^^Sailors and marines coming and going from the Naval Base (and is Camp Pendleton in the metro?)??

Also, I can tell you that Arizona practically evacuates to the San Diego area beaches on summer weekends.
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  #7  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 6:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BTinSF View Post
^^^Sailors and marines coming and going from the Naval Base (and is Camp Pendleton in the metro?)??

Also, I can tell you that Arizona practically evacuates to the San Diego area beaches on summer weekends.
I personally wouldn't count Camp Pendleton, I consider that part of the San Diego metro area. The World Tourism Organization defines a tourist as someone who travels at least 50 miles from home for the purpose of recreation.

I guess enough Arizonans travel to San Diego every year to bump up the numbers? Still, I don't consider San Diego to be a major national/international tourist destination as compared to San Francisco, which is why the numbers surprise me.
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Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 9:43 PM
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^^^ I'm not surprised, with SeaWorld, LegoLand, and a decent-sized convention center.
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  #9  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 11:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vertex View Post
^^^ I'm not surprised, with SeaWorld, LegoLand, and a decent-sized convention center.
I'm not surprised either. San Francisco always seems to have tons of tourists, but a lot of that is because SF is so small geographically, and many of the tourist spots are crammed into places used by many locals as well. The tourist spots in San Diego are in several different places and spread out from each other. The zoo is another biggy for San Diego.
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  #10  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 11:12 PM
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It might be fun to put this in "city discussions" to see what others think. My guesses:

1. NY people will argue that they really should be #1 thus discounting the merits of the list.

2. I see some Chicagoans arguing they should be higher (I see others quitely accepting the truth) thus discounting the merits of the list.

3. I see everyone searching for and posting contradictory numbers (that make their hometowns look much better) thus discounting the merits of the list.


Sounds like fun. Dragonsky, re-post this in city discussions
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  #11  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2007, 11:32 PM
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What would be interesting to me would be to see the point of origin of these tourists. Example, I will assume that the majority of people visiting Las Vegas are from southern California. And, I wouldn't doubt that many are also repeat visitors throughout the year. Also, it'd be interesting to see how many of these tourists are from outside the US.
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Last edited by sopas ej; Aug 6, 2007 at 11:48 PM.
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  #12  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2007, 11:31 AM
Dr Nevergold Dr Nevergold is offline
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I've seen other stats that put San Francisco way higher, along with some other cities. Kinda makes me wonder how these stats are put together?
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  #13  
Old Posted Aug 10, 2007, 8:25 PM
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Quote:
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I've seen other stats that put San Francisco way higher, along with some other cities. Kinda makes me wonder how these stats are put together?
That's why I usually take these stats with a grain of salt. When it comes to those other news stories, like "Best Cities to Live," I REALLY take those stories with a grain of salt.
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Old Posted Aug 11, 2007, 10:08 AM
Dr Nevergold Dr Nevergold is offline
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True, these stats are so manipulated that its hard to know what is real and what isn't. Speaking of both SF and LA, they split the metro up into pieces so it appears to be lower than it is. Although if its purely calculating hotel rooms sold, I assume many of these "visits" are really pass-throughs when people are just trying to drive/commute through town.
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  #15  
Old Posted Aug 11, 2007, 10:31 AM
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they should have a list of the most beautiful cities or coolest.
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  #16  
Old Posted Aug 12, 2007, 7:45 AM
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I've always had the sneaking suspicion that Las Vegas is the most visited city in the country.
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