Issue link: http://savannah.uberflip.com/i/1514376
42 24 Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce 2024 Economic Trends Industry: Tourism Savannah's tourism industry and visitor economy continues to be one of the region's top economic drivers. In 2022, over 17 million people visited the Savannah/Chatham County area, generating over $4 billion is visitor spending. Additionally, Savannah continues to be recognized as a world-class destination with top places to visit in the U.S. accolades from noted national travel and lifestyle publications and websites like Conde Nast, Travel + Leisure, Southern Living, TripAdvisor.com and CNNTravel.com. The Savannah tourism sector continued its strong post-pandemic growth. In 2022, Savannah hosted 9.7 million overnight visitors and 7.3 million day-visitors. The demand for rooms increased 9.3% in 2022 while the supply of available rooms increased 1.8% to 18,549. In 2022, room tax revenue rose to $44.5 million, up 22% from 2021, more than double from the pandemic year of 2020. Visitor spending in 2022 increased 37.5% to $4.4 billion as compared to 2021. Tourism's Impact on Savannah/Chatham County 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Number of Lodging Rooms (1) 16,199 16,894 16,567 18,220 18,549 Person-Stays (Overnight) (2) 8.2 Million 8.4 million 7.7 Million 8.3 Million 9.7 Million Room Night Demand (1) 3.9 Million 4.1 Million 2.9 Million 4.3 Million $4.7 Million Direct Spending (2) $3 Billion $3.1 Billion $2.8 Billion $3.2 Billion $4.4 Billion Room Tax Revenue (3) $26.7 Million $27.7 Million $18.2 Million $36.6 Million $44.5 Million Sources: Visit Savannah 1 Smith Travel Research – Chatham County 2 Longwoods International 3 City of Savannah/Chatham County/Tybee Island Savannah's visitors enjoy year-round activities. Although the busiest season of visitations is April until June, the flow of visitors is spread fairly evenly across the year. For overnight visitors, the mix is 89% leisure travel and 11% business and business-leisure. 35% of leisure travelers are visiting friends and relatives. 68% of over-night visitors are repeat visitors and stay approximately 2.3 nights in Savannah. Savannah excels in special interest tourism activities and continues to be an exciting destination. Savannah's distinctive qualities allow the city to stand out in the crowd. In top interest categories for overnight visitors, Savannah remains far ahead of typical national levels in exceptional culinary experiences, cultural activities and historic places. Source: VisitSavannah.