Almost 28 million people visited Maryland last year, generating $10 billion for the state economy, according to figures released Tuesday by Maryland tourism officials.
Those numbers are significantly higher than those previously measured by the Travel Industry Association, because the association is now using an Internet survey rather than mail responses.
“The states were undercounting their numbers in general,” said Dennis Castleman, head of the tourism development for the state. Maryland and 31 other states have now switched to the new survey method.
The mail-in surveys had a low rate of return, producing “a very small sampling size,” Castleman said. “Day-trippers were going uncounted.”
About 15 million people visited the state on day-trips, and another 12.7 million stayed at least one night in a hotel.
Two-thirds of the tourists came from close by, about a third from inside the state, and another third from Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Business travelers represented 22 percent of the numbers. Castleman said younger executives were using the Internet, teleconferencing and other technologies to reduce company travel.
But leisure travelers were continuing to fill up airline seats and hotels.
The new figures were announced by Gov. Robert Ehrlich at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where the governor awarded $12 million to 225 arts organizations and another $5.4 million to museums, historic and cultural institutions.
Ehrlich noted that tourists come to the state, spend money and then leave.
“That?s why governors love tourists,” he said.
He said cultural and artistic institutions are “part of the equation” in attracting new businesses to Maryland from out-of-state and overseas.
“We need to remain one of the top cultural venues in the world,” Ehrlich told an audience representing the arts, culture and tourism.
“There was some fear in the arts community that there was a Republican governor,” he said, but “I was raised by artists.”
Doreen Bolger, director of the Baltimore Museum of Arts, said the budget passed by the General Assembly included the “largest increase in recent memory” for the Maryland Arts Council.
The museum is getting almost $1 million from the state, but it gets $1.5 million from Baltimore City, and more from surrounding counties.
“We?re blessed to receive strong government support,” Bolger said.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gets more than $2 million from the state.
By the numbers
» Total tourists: 27.8 million
» People per trip: 1.8
» Average stay: 1.7 days
» Average spending per trip: $353
» States of origin: Md., 31 percent; Va., 16 percent; Pa., 16 percent; N.J., 7 percent; N.Y., 5 percent; W.Va., N.C., Del., about 2 percent each
? Source: Travel Industry Association
