Depending on how you look at it, Baltimore tourism is either cruising along the road to recovery or losing pace after an early surge.
The city?s tourism business posted promising numbers during the first quarter of the year. But April 2007 data suggests visitor activity lagged compared with April 2006, according to two reports from the Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore economic policy and consulting firm.
In the first quarter, hotel occupancy, room demand and average daily rate numbers were all higher than first-quarter 2006 reports.
In April, however, hotel occupancy and flight arrivals were down compared with April 2006.
The telltale number might be that through April 2006, the city generated $20.8 million in tourism-related sales tax revenue. Through April 2007, Baltimore took in $23.6 million ? a 12 percent increase.
Nancy Hinds, vice president of public affairs for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, was pleased with the first-quarter numbers.
“You really have to look at the quarterly numbers, because you might have a bad month or a bad week at some point,” she said. “You have to compare apples to apples.”
Despite what could be called a slow April, the visitors association expects 2007 to continue to be a profitable year, Hinds said. About 12 million people visit Baltimore each year.
“We like to see that the trend line is going up,” she said. “Baltimore is a very appealing destination.”
Flight arrivals at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport are down through 2007 compared with the same period in 2006. According to Sage, there were 62,011 fewer domestic arrivals and 21,711 fewer international arrivals.
Jonathan O. Dean, communications manager for the Maryland Aviation Association, said the early months were unusual for the airport.
“Much of that small drop was caused by winter storms in February and March,” Dean said. “Winter weather caused air traffic delays and canceled flights all along the East Coast in early 2007.”
Anirban Basu, Sage?s president and chief executive officer, said he thought the first-quarter numbers represented a “gradual recovery” for the Baltimore tourism business.
“Visitation was up, venue attendance was up, hotel business was up ? these are all good indicators,” Basu said. “Will the balance of the year build on the momentum of the first quarter? That?s the big question.”
