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Philly Has Record Year

By Brittany Trevick

Just in time for the new year, Center City Philadelphia is right on track to end 2015 with a record hotel occupancy.

Record Hotel Occupancy: 77.4%:

Center City Philadelphia’s hotel occupancy is estimated to hit a record 77.4 percent in up from 75.5 percent in 2014. Visitors to Philadelphia from all segments (leisure, group, business) will have filled a projected 3.1 million rooms—another record.

Leisure Is One Of Three Major Segments:

The leisure segment of travelers will set a record as well for 2015. Tourists are projected to account for 31 percent of room nights in Center City, as opposed to just 14 percent in 1997, when Visit Philadelphia started marketing the area as a leisure destination (254,000 versus 976,400 room nights—a 284 percent increase).

This means one in every three Center City hotel guests is a leisure traveler.

They fill rooms every day of the week, especially from June through October. In 2015, Saturday night occupancy—a major sign of a city’s strength as a leisure destination—will hit a record 88 percent and take its place as the highest of the week in Center City, as it has been for more than a decade.

Hotel Room Rates:

The 2015 average daily rate is projected to hit $182, another record for Center City. Each segment is showing ADR increases compared to 2014: Commercial is projected to increase 5 percent to $200; group is projected to increase 5 percent to $188; and leisure is projected to increase 4 percent to $166.

“People are coming for Philadelphia—the destination itself is the reason to visit, and travelers are doing it more and more every year,” says Meryl Levitz, president/CEO, Visit Philadelphia. “The pope was here for a weekend; the rest of the year succeeded simply because of Philly.”

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