15.5 Million Visitors Spent $4.37 Billion in Metro Detroit in 2004, According to Detroit Metro Conve

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. October 14, 2008

DETROIT, Michigan, Ocotber 12, 2005. Metro Detroit visitor spending increased by one percent from $4.3 billion in 2002 to $4.37 billion in 2004, and 15.5 million people visited the region, down slightly from the 15.7 million reported in 2002, according to a tourism report commissioned by the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau (DMCVB).

More than 3.8 million metro Detroit visitors stayed in hotels or motels in the metro area in 2004. Nineteen percent more visitors stayed in metro Detroit area hotels, but they stayed fewer nights than in 2002 when the last survey was conducted. The number of visitors who stayed overnight with friends and family dropped 16 percent since 2002. As a result of the increase in hotel guest volume and decrease in private home guests, the total volume of overnight visitors dropped about five percent in 2004 to just under 9.6 million, decreasing at a slower rate than the most recent tourism reports in 2000 and 2002.

The 2004 Detroit Metropolitan Area Tourism Market Profile and Economic Impact Study was conducted for the DMCVB by CIC Research Inc. of San Diego. The study includes face-to-face interviews with area visitors, metro area household phone surveys and a hotel/motel industry survey.

"Tourism is Michigan's second largest industry, and the past few years have been lean in the travel industry across the country," said Larry Alexander, DMCVB president & CEO. "Our region's continuing economic uncertainty is a major contributor to the slower recovery in the metro Detroit tourism industry.

"However, with a successful 2004 Ryder Cup and 2005 All-Star Game behind us, metro Detroit can look forward to national attention for marquee events like Super Bowl XL, the NCAA Men's Final Four in 2009 and NCAA Frozen Four in 2010," Alexander adds.

"We just hosted thousands of members of Sweet Adelines International, a group displaced by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. This major convention booking process usually takes a year or more, and with the help of our regional tourism partners, we helped organize this event in just three weeks."

The report states there are signs that the tourism industry is gaining some momentum and will continue to recover in 2005 and 2006. Metro area tourism will benefit from several downtown community improvement projects now underway. Super Bowl XL in Detroit on Feb. 5, 2006 should help the industry's growth and recovery. Other facts include:

• Hotel/motel visitor spending totaled $2.14 billion in metro Detroit in 2004, and it broke down as follows: lodging, $704 million (32 percent); meals and beverages, $461 million, (21 percent); shopping, $380 million (17 percent); local transportation, $416 million (21 percent); entertainment/recreation, $107 million (five percent); casinos, $76 million (four percent).

• Hotel occupancy decreased one percent since the 2002 tourism study, from 57.2 percent in 2002 to 56.1 percent in 2004. Average daily room rates decreased slightly during the same period from $80 to $77 in metro Detroit's 35,000 hotel rooms.

• Air arrivals posted a strong increase in 2004, almost reaching the record 17.6 million arriving passengers in 2000.

• While business and convention travelers represented 46 percent of all hotel visitors, they generated 69 percent of all room nights purchased.

• Forty-seven percent of all overnight visitors came from the Midwest, with the greatest market share from Michigan, 17.5 percent; followed by Ohio, 14.8 percent; and Illinois, 5.5 percent. The remainder came from southern states, 24.8 percent; 11.2 percent came from the northeast; 10.9 percent came from western states and 6.7 were international visitors.

• The new hotels that opened in metro Detroit since the 2002 study include Hampton Inn & Suites-Sterling Heights, Hilton Garden Inn Detroit Downtown, Royal Park Hotel in Rochester and SpringHill Suites in Southfield adding 501 rooms in the market.

Some tourism data for visitors who spent the night in metro Detroit is available by county as well. The DMCVB also compiles a publication called Tourism Barometer as a monthly resource for the local business community and media. To view current and past editions, visit the DMCVB web site http://www.visitdetroit.com/media.

The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to market and sell the metro Detroit area on a worldwide basis as a destination for leisure and business travel including conventions, trade shows, corporate meetings, tours and incentive travel to maximize additional visitors, visitor expenditures, state and local tax revenues, and job opportunities. More than 700 businesses are represented in the DMCVB's membership. The DMCVB was founded in 1896 as the world's first convention and visitors bureau.