Despite the troubled economy, tourism spending in the Charlottesville area rose last year, according to a report released Monday by the Charlottesville and Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. The area’s substantial number of historic sites and central location are credited for the tourism interest, officials said.
Allison Baer, interim director for the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, said visitor spending in 2007 rose to a total of $435 million, a 6.7 percent increase from the previous year. Overall, Virginia tourism generated $1.2 billion in state and local tax revenue in 2007, she said.
The Virginia Tourism Corporation produced the annual review focused on visitor expenditures with information provided through the Travel Industry Association of America, Baer said. The report “isn’t necessarily a tool that you would use to forecast, as much as it is a way to shed light on how you did,” Baer explained, adding that the most recent figures remain consistent with the increase the area also saw in 2006.
Charlottesville, Baer said, has many tourist attractions, especially the Downtown Mall.
“It’s just a historical gem,” Baer said, adding that the destination is easily accessible and offers several affordable attractions. These aspects, she said, make the Downtown Mall an attractive place to visit for families with young children, even in less than ideal economic times.
Overall, the Charlottesville area has “a plethora of things to offer for a variety of different people,” she noted.
Other local tourism hot-spots include Monticello, the Academical Village and the Rotunda, Rotunda Administrator Leslie Comstock said. She said visitors come from across the world to see Grounds, which is a United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site.
“It was very interesting to me to see that in the course of the last six months ... there’s been a rise of 1,000 more visitors per month than in the previous year,” Comstock said, adding that such a change is significant.
Typically, 100,000 tourists visit the Rotunda each year, Comstock said, but “this year will certainly top that.”
Rising gas prices and general economic downturn do not seem to be holding visitors back, Comstock said, although many school groups and other larger organizations are beginning to stay closer to home. Charlottesville’s convenient location in relation to other major cities within the state, however, makes it easily accessible and provides an ideal location for both academic and personal visits, she said.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll see an increase in 2008,” she said.
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