The District’s tourism bureau has estimated that the nation’s capital hosted nearly 18 million visitors last year, a 3 percent increase over last year’s 17.8 million.
Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC, testified Thursday that the organization was still crunching the numbers but expected that the city is getting closer to its pre-2001 terrorist attack numbers, when visitor totals reached 20 million annually.
“This would mark the first year the visitor volume has peaked since 2000,” Ferguson told the D.C. Council Committee on Small and Local Business Development.
He said the bureau planned to release its official numbers next month. D.C. isitors also spent about $5 billion in 2011, with one-quarter of that coming from international visitors. The District is second only to New York City in popularity among foreign travellers visiting U.S. destinations, Ferguson said.
