Pittsburgh tourism bounces back, report shows
Andrew Masich said he started to notice a change last year.
The Sen. John Heinz History Center president and CEO watched attendance numbers dip at the Strip District museum during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, this summer, he saw attendance soar when the Allegheny Regional Asset District provided funding allowing the center to offer free admission for all guests.
“We had our best month in history (when) 65,000 people came to the history center in August,” said Masich, who also serves as a commissioner and former chairman of the state Historical and Museum Commission. “The staff, they feel it. We are definitely back.”
Stories like Masich’s have become more common in the past 18 months, according to VisitPittsburgh. The region’s official tourism agency released 2022 figures Thursday, which showed an industry getting closer and closer to pre-pandemic numbers. A Philadelphia-area research group says Allegheny County is on pace this year to reach — and possibly exceed — 2019’s figures.
Data shows Pittsburgh welcomed an estimated 19.5 million visitors for day visits in 2022, a 95% bounce-back to 2019 numbers, VisitPittsburgh spokeswoman Emily Hatfield said. Overnight travel showed a lesser recovery, with figures rebounding last year to 83% of 2019 numbers.
The county’s travel and tourism industry’s economic impact topped $5.9 billion in 2022, Hatfield said.
That number is lower than it was in 2019, when the total impact reached $6.5 billion, data show. But the new numbers are in line with historical figures. The
tourism industry’s economic impact in Allegheny County grew every year — except one — between 2009 and 2019, steadily increasing from $4.3 billion to 2019’s peak of $6.5 billion, according to the data.
In 2020, the covid-19 pandemic decimated the area’s tourism industry, dropping that economic impact to $3.6 billion, according to the state Tourism
Office in the Department of Community & Economic Development.
Last year, the newly released figures show visitors to Allegheny County spent nearly $1.3 billion on food and beverages, compared to nearly $1.4 billion in 2019. They also spent $1.2 billion on recreation, compared to $1.3 billion in 2019. Retail shopping raked in $900 million
last year, compared to $1 billion in 2019.
In 2022, spending in certain niches of the industry blossomed, Hatfield said. Spending on lodging in the county increased 45% last year to nearly $720 million. Transportation jumped 30% to $1.8 billion.
The research group Tourism Economics, which has its U.S. headquarters near Philadelphia, said visitors are on track to spend $6.5 billion in Allegheny County this year. Visitors spent $6.5 billion in Allegheny County in 2019.
“The travel industry continues its post-pandemic rebound, and that’s good news for the Pittsburgh area’s bottom line,” said Jerad Bachar, VisitPittsburgh’s president and CEO.
Others are seeing similar trends.
Last year was a good one for Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, which “experienced positive visitation trends” in 2022, spokesman Sloan McRae said. Though 2022 figures slightly lagged behind pre-pandemic figures, this year appears to be the year the bounce-back is complete, she said.
The museum did not provide specific attendance figures.
The two Carnegie museums are on pace this year “to meet and perhaps exceed pre-pandemic attendance numbers,” McRae said.
“With our busiest weeks of the year coming up in late November and December, our teams are eagerly awaiting and gearing up to welcome our holiday and wintertime crowds,” he added.
Masich also said record crowds at the Heinz History Center in August were no anomaly.
The annual fundraising event “History Uncorked” drew a sold-out crowd of 1,700 people in March and the annual “Vintage Pittsburgh” retro event in April drew another 3,600, Masich said.
In August, the history center handed out about 15,000 Heinz “pickle pins” — the iconic green pins first introduced at the 1893 World’s Fair — to children who completed a “passport” of the exhibits they saw, Masich said.
Most who visit the history center are coming into the Strip District from outside southwestern Pennsylvania, a noticeable shift from a more local-dominated ratio a decade ago, Masich said. In the 2022-23 fiscal year, 63% of people who paid for admission to Heinz History Center came from outside the seven-county region, Masich said.