CLEVELAND (October
2, 2017) - Destination Cleveland, the convention and visitors bureau for Cuyahoga County, today announced
18 million people visited Cuyahoga County in 2016 for business and leisure travel
- surpassing the previous record of 17.6 million set just one year prior. Visitor
volume grew at a rate of 2.8 percent, outpacing the U.S. growth rate
(1.2 percent in 2016) for the seventh straight year, according to Tourism
Economics.
Both day and overnight visitor volumes
grew from 2015 to 2016, with the growth rate for overnight visitors (2.9
percent) outpacing day visitor growth (2.6 percent) for the second year in a
row. Since 2011, overnight visitation has grown by 22 percent while day
visitation has expanded by 21 percent.
"Continued record-setting growth in our
visitor volume shows that Destination Cleveland's sustained marketing and sales
efforts combined with opportunities that shine a positive spotlight on
Cleveland, such as the 2016 RNC, the NBA Finals and MLB World Series, are motivating
more people each year to discover for themselves all that Cleveland offers," said
David Gilbert, president and CEO, Destination Cleveland. "With continued
short-term gains in travel and tourism, Cleveland is better positioned for
broader economic success as many of those who move to a new city often had a
favorable visitor experience first.1"
Since 2009, visits to Cleveland have
grown by an average of close to 800,000 per year.
ABOUT DESTINATION
CLEVELAND: Destination Cleveland is Cleveland's convention
and visitors bureau. This private
non-profit organization's mission is to drive economic impact and stimulate
community vitality for Greater Cleveland through leisure and business travel.
Cleveland welcomes 18 million visitors annually. For more information, visit ThisisCleveland.com.
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1 Metrics were obtained from Cuyahoga County's 2016 Visitor
Volume study produced by D.K. Shifflet as well as the 2016 Tourism Economic
Report, which is a study published by Tourism Economics, a division of Oxford
Economics and a world leader in global forecasting and quantitative analysis.