Top 10 Reasons to Fall in Love All Over Again with Alexandria

PHOTO: A new study tells us what people like to do most in Alexandria. Photo by R. Kennedy, courtesy of Visit Alexandria.

______________________

It’s almost Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. Don’t take your loved one — and that includes the City of Alexandria — for granted. Let’s look at the “Top 10 Reasons Why Visitors Love Alexandria,” courtesy of Visit Alexandria (previously known as the Alexandria Convention & Visitors Association).

New research reveals why visitors LOVE Alexandria. In fact, 94 percent of visitors who come to Alexandria said they would recommend it to family and friends. Check out the top 10 motivating factors for an Alexandria visit and the top 10 favorite things to do. How do they match up against your favorite things about Alexandria?

Top 10 Motivating Factors

These factors are what most motivate visitors to come to Alexandria for a visit:

1. Restaurants and food scene

2. Close proximity to Washington, DC

3. Easy to get to by car, train, and plane

4. Clean and safe

5. Friends and family live in the area

6. Walkability

7. Waterfront location

8. Overall ambiance and atmosphere

9. Historic significance

10. Well-preserved 18th and 19th century architecture

Top 10 Favorite Things to Do

These are the favorite activities of visitors once they get to Alexandria:

1. Dining in restaurants

2. Shopping

3. Strolling historic King Street

4. Visiting the waterfront

5. Historic sites

6. Visiting local friends and family

7. Torpedo Factory Art Center

8. Art and antique galleries

9. Mount Vernon

10. Taking a history tour

Alexandria’s tourism office released these findings as part of the results of an independent study of 4,800 random households within a 400-mile radius (excluding Alexandria itself), which uncovered the motivating factors, favorite activities and spending habits of visitors.

The findings were recently released as part two of a study that demonstrated the return-on-investment and effectiveness of Alexandria’s tourism advertising. The study found a 171:1 return-on-investment (ROI) for the “Extraordinary Alexandria” tourism advertising campaign, an increase from a 130:1 ROI found by a 2010 study of the prior campaign.

The new study, conducted by Destination Analysts, determined that for every dollar spent by the City of Alexandria on campaign advertising, $171 was generated in visitor spending at local businesses and $6 came back to the city in tax revenue, up from $4 in city tax revenue per ad dollar in 2010.

New data will both influence and reinforce marketing strategies of Alexandria’s tourism office, which has announced a new name for the organization: Visit Alexandria.

Established in 1996 as the Alexandria Convention & Visitors Association, tourism officials will now do business as Visit Alexandria, creating consistency with the website, VisitAlexandriaVA.com, and aligning Alexandria with destination marketing organizations (DMOs) across the country that have updated their names to better reflect the modern, dynamic role they play.