June 23, 2015
Overseas visitors spent more time and money in Philadelphia in 2014 than during the previous year, but the city still trails behind others in America in overseas visitation, Philadelphia Business Journal reports.
While the number of foreign visitors in Philadelphia dropped from 673,000 to some more than 620,000 from 2013 to 2014, the group spent more money and time here than the previous year's visitors.
Visitors generated $578 million for the local economy in 2014 (up from $570 million in 2013), and the length of time foreign travelers stayed overnight increased more than 14 percent compared with the year before.
Philadelphia, however, still lags behind other cities. Philly was the only major destination on the East Coast that did not have more than 1 million visitors.
One way Philadelphia could hit the benchmark is by adding nonstop direct flights to Asian countries, particularly China, which is seeing a substantial growth in visitation to Philadelphia, said Jack Ferguson, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“If we ever got nonstop flights to Philadelphia, we can move toward that top-10 list, where our competitors reside,” Ferguson told Philadelphia Business Journal. “Think about if we had airlift from anywhere in Asia, making it convenient for the Chinese to get here.”
Working with Brand USA, the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, PHLCVB, is creating short videos to attract visitors from the United Kingdom, Germany and Brazil.
Read more from Philadelphia Business Journal.
