Tourism Spending Hits Record $859 Million In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Tourism spending continues to trend upward as Visit Alexandria announced a record $859 million in 2018. This comes from visitors who come to Alexandria from 50 or more miles away.

The data comes from the state's 2018 Economic Impact of Domestic Travel on Virginia and Localities report. Among Virginia counties and cities, Alexandria had the seventh highest visitor spending in 2018. By comparison, Arlington County had $3.4 billion in visitor spending, Fairfax County had $3.3 billion. Among independent cities, only Virginia Beach and Norfolk had more visitor spending than Alexandria.

"This was a big year for Alexandria," said Patricia Washington, president and CEO of Visit Alexandria in a statement. "We celebrated the announcement that the Alexandria/Arlington partnership landed Amazon HQ2 and Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus and Alexandria being named a Top 5 Best Small City in the U.S. 2018 by the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards. We also weathered monumental challenges, including a 35-day federal government shutdown and 107-day Metro shutdown."

Hotel occupancy remained unchanged from last year at 72.5 percent. Alexandria's hotel occupancy remains lower than DC's but is higher than the DC suburb average and national average.

Visitor spending resulted in 27.91 million in tax receipts. Additional study shows 71 percent of Alexandria's sales, meals and lodging tax receipts comes from non-residents, which includes regional visitors.

Visit Alexandria, which promotes tourism in the city, has worked on various initiatives in the last fiscal year along with preparation for the summer-long Metro shutdown. Initiatives for the last year were a regional marketing campaign, promotion of the new Waterfront Park at the foot of King Street, King Street Corridor Initiative projects coordinated with the city, and Portside in Old Town event series.

The shutdown of Alexandria's Metro stations from May 25 to Sept. 8 presented a challenge for business. Strategies for weathering the Metro shutdown included the 50 Ways to Love Your Summer in Alexandria campaign and hotel package and promotion of alternative forms of transportation and reduced parking rates at city garages and lots. Once the Metro stations reopened, Visit Alexandria promoted "end of shutdown" deals. When the federal government shutdown stretched on for more than a month, Visit Alexandria highlighted deals businesses offered to federal workers.

For the next fiscal year, Visit Alexandria's focuses will include a new destination advertising campaign, promotion of individual neighborhood content, the soon-to-open Tall Ship Providence, King Street Corridor Initiative sustainability plan and a new partnership of leadership and team building institutes.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect Alexandria's visitor spending for 2018, not fiscal year 2019.