Issue link: http://savannah.uberflip.com/i/1531156
49 24 Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce 2025 Economic Trends Industry: Tourism Savannah's tourism industry and visitor economy continues to be one of the region's top economic drivers. In 2023, 17.3 million people visited the Savannah/Chatham County area, generating $4.75 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 MSN Travel, Travel + Leisure, Southern Living, TripAdvisor.com and Home Stratosphere. The Savannah tourism sector continued its strong post-pandemic growth. In 2023, Savannah hosted 10 million overnight visitors and 7.3 million day-visitors. The demand for rooms increased 1.1% in 2023 while the supply of available rooms increased 1.2% to 18,767. In 2023, room tax revenue rose to $48.7 million, up 9.4% from 2022, more than double from the pandemic year of 2020. Visitor spending in 2023 increased 6.8% to $4.7 billion as compared to 2022. Tourism's Impact on Savannah/Chatham County 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Number of Lodging Rooms (1) 16,849 16,567 18,220 18,549 18,767 Person-Stays (Overnight) (2) 8.4 Million 7.7 million 8.3 Million 9.7 Million 10 Million Room Night Demand (1) 4.1 Million 2.9 Million 4.3 Million 4.7 Million 4.75 Million Direct Spending (2) $3.1 Billion $2.8 Billion $3.2 Billion $4.4 Billion $4.7 Billion Room Tax Revenue (3) $27.7 Million $18.2 Million $36.6 Million $44.5 Million $48.7 Million Sources: 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. 39% of leisure travelers are visiting friends and relatives. 68% of over-night visitors are repeat visitors and stay approximately 2.8 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.