Visitation and hotels revenue during the months of January, February and March have been the highest ever recorded for Jacksonville, with March 2018 being the best month in the history of the city's tourism industry.
The data, which has been collected by STR, revealed the following Jacksonville tourism indicators:
• Total Hotel Revenue collected from January, February and March 2018 is up more than $12 million from the first quarter of 2017.
• Hotel Average Daily Rate ADR (a measure linked to demand) has increased by $5 more than in the same period in 2017. The current average hotel rate in the county is $96.39.
• Hotel Occupancy is up about 3.5%. That is about 72,000 more rooms sold between January to March of 2018 compared to the same dates in 2017.
March is the best month ever recorded for the local hotel and tourism industry, beating all previous records in Jacksonville, including those set during Super Bowl XXXIX.
• March 2018 Occupancy: 82.2% of 18,000 rooms available nightly in the county. That is 2.4% more than in 2017, which is higher than February 2005 when Jacksonville hosted the Super Bowl.
• Total Hotel Revenue collected in March was $45.7 million, 7.9% more than the same month in 2017. A record for Duval County.
• March 2018 saw the highest amount of rooms sold ever in the county, over 462,000 in one single month.
“These remarkable numbers represent a reality that many in Jacksonville are not aware of, tourism is a vital economic engine for our city," said Bill Prescott, chair of Visit Jacksonville's board. "Visitors to Jacksonville support an industry that generates $3.2 billion annually, one of the largest sectors in our economy employing more than 50,000 workers.”
March is now the 53rd straight month of growth for Jacksonville’s key tourism indicators.
“We are thrilled with the growth," said Katie Mitura, VP of Marketing and Communications for Visit Jacksonville. "These numbers are the direct result of a massive growth in awareness for our destination, both in the leisure and meetings markets due to targeted marketing and advertising campaigns inviting new audiences to experience Jacksonville. We have seen spikes in visitation from Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, New York and the Southeast. And we have hosted more than 52 Meetings and Conventions so far in 2018 with hundreds more to come this year. We are reenergized by these growing numbers this first quarter and look forward to continuing the historic growth during the summer season."
