How many tourists visited Memphis and Shelby Co. in 2018?
In 2018, Memphis and Shelby County welcomed about 11.8 million tourists and that number is expected to rise even higher in 2019, according to Memphis Tourism.
The highest tourist traffic came between March and October 2018, Memphis’ peak months. For each of those months, the city and county saw more than 1 million tourists monthly, helping to draw in about $3.5 billion in tourism spending for all of 2018.
“As we celebrate our history as the home of blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll, as an organization, we’ve also worked aggressively to set the stage for future growth and new development for tourism as an economic engine for our community, one that generates $1.13 billion in annual wages in Shelby County,” said Kevin Kane, CEO of Memphis Tourism. “In the first few months of the year, we are very encouraged by the growth in visitation that we are already seeing in 2019, up 7% over 2018.”
The spike in tourism is due in large part to several years of research and data that were used to determine how to spend advertising dollars to attract more tourism, an annual report released by Memphis Tourism last week said.
Memphis Tourism used a $2 hotel room tax to fund research and marketing efforts and said for every $1.26 spent on marketing, one tourist comes to the area and spends about $200.
According to the report, music is the main draw for Memphis tourists worldwide.
Domestic tourists most commonly visit Memphis from Nashville, Dallas, Atlanta, Little Rock and Chicago, while most international tourists come from Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia, Memphis Tourism found.
Desiree Stennett covers economic development and business at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at desiree.stennett@commercial appeal.com, 901-529-2738 or on Twitter: @desi_stennett.