Courtesy City of Alexandria
Alexandria has been "punching well above its weight" with tourism, said Visit Alexandria President and CEO Patricia Washington.
Continuing a five-year growth trend, spending by visitors traveling to Alexandria from more than 50 miles increased by $36 million dollars (up 4.6 percent) to a record $826 million in Fiscal Year 2018, according to data from the Virginia Tourism Corporation.
Visit Alexandria, the nonprofit tourism marketing organization for Alexandria, announced the data Monday evening at its annual meeting at the newly renovated Holiday Inn & Suites Alexandria—Old Town.
Tourism contributed $27.4 million to Alexandria's tax revenues in FY 2018 that help pay for schools, roads and services for residents. Tax revenue generated by non-residents saved the average Alexandria household $616 per year.
Since 2013, the visitor economy has increased in Alexandria by $88 million. Tourism now supports more than 6,500 Alexandria jobs, representing 7 percent of the local workforce.
The increase is possible thanks to real collaboration between City agencies, organizations, businesses, and art and history partners.
“This is a pivotal year for Alexandria as we face unprecedented competition,” said Patricia Washington, president and CEO of Visit Alexandria. “This challenge unites us and energizes us to work smarter, relying on big data to drive our marketing decisions, and to continue to improve the quality of experiences and programs our City has to offer.”
Alexandria has faced some challenges this year: While a serious issue for residents and businesses, Lower King Street has looked more like Venice than Alexandria, said City Manager Mark Jinks.
Alexandria's tourism is facing competition from The Wharf, a $2.2 billion development in the District.
Revenues are up in the City of Alexandria, but the City is looking at "innovative ways to get more done with not as much as we'd like," he said. (A test of priority-based budgeting will be one of those innovations.)
City officials, Visit Alexandria, businesses and organizations are in the midst of planning for the shutdown of all Metro services south of Reagan National Airport in the summer of 2019, as well.
However, Jinks noted that Alexandria has done a few things well, including taking the "problem" of Landmark Mall and turning it into a solution for the production company behind the next movie in the Wonder Woman series.
In addition, the King Street Waterfront Park will be opening in October despite an unusually rainy September. Plus, the public-private partnership King Street Corridor Initiative has launched and will be a major focal point for 2019, and Alexandria is eagerly awaiting next summer's arrival of its own tall ship, The Providence.
Visit Alexandria will also launch ALXNetWorks, an initiative to connect meeting planners with each other and to position Alexandria as the place for meetings and conventions. The meetings team will also debut a new ad campaign, “Close to DC, Far from Expected.”
