They dine at Old Ebbitt Grill and buy hot dogs from street vendors. They take Segway tours on the Mall, purchase stuffed panda bears from the National Zoo and buy “FBI” T-shirts. But they also stand in the middle of the Metro escalators, blocking frenzied commuters as they rush to get to work on time.
The region’s love-hate relationship with tourists has kicked into high gear this week, as schools and families use spring break to visit the nation’s capital.
The visitors have lots of money to pour into Washington’s economy — they contribute about 13 percent of D.C.’s tax revenue — but they also peeve commuters with their lack of Metro etiquette and insistence on stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.
| Tourism by the numbers |
| • 16.4 million visitors come to Washington each year. |
| • Tourists in D.C. generate $5.2 billion, yielding about $580 million in local tax revenue. That’s about 13 percent of the city’s tax revenue. |
| • D.C. is the seventh most popular U.S. destination for international travelers. |
| Source: Destination DC’s latest figures, 2009 |
“I try to explain to them, if you’re going to ride the escalators on the Metro, keep to the right, because people are going to be walking on the left, but largely those things are lost on them,” said Bob Mallon, a history teacher from Pembroke, Mass., who organized a spring break trip to Washington for 200 middle school students. “So I can see why sometimes the people who live here get stressed by it,” he said as his students, wearing matching blue jackets, ate brown bag lunches Tuesday on the National Mall.
Mallon, who has been bringing students to D.C. for the last 30 years, takes them to baseball games and night cruises on the Potomac River, as well as traditional favorites such as the National Archives and the Lincoln Memorial.
He said he’s never seen as many school trips as he has this year. “This week, they’re just everywhere. And it’s fun to see that. I really think Washington should be part of kids’ experience growing up.”
But complaining about tourists is a rite of spring for D.C. denizens, and it has gotten some in trouble.
Take Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who said at the dedication of the Capitol Visitors Center that lawmakers in the summer could “literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol.” That quote was used against him last year as he ran for re-election to paint him as out of touch with ordinary people.
Others on Capitol Hill were more careful, agreeing to speak about tourists only if they wouldn’t be identified.
“I get that tourism is an important part of our local economy, but tourists fail to grasp that Capitol Hill is a functioning workplace and not Disney World,” said one Republican who works on Capitol Hill. “Also, is it really still OK to wear fanny packs in some parts of the country?”
About 16.4 million tourists visited Washington in 2009, according to the most recent statistics available, said Kate Gibbs, a spokeswoman for Destination DC, the city’s tourism agency. Their numbers typically soar in March and April, with the National Cherry Blossom Festival and then with families and schools taking spring vacations.
Metro added 10 rail cars — 640 more seats — to its weekday service to accommodate the crowds during the Cherry Blossom Festival and plans to continue that through the tourist season, spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said. Figures for this week weren’t immediately available.
One family from Suffolk, Va., who visited the zoo and the museums on the Mall while on their first vacation in the nation’s capital, bragged about one souvenir they’re taking home.
“We got our picture taken with Barack Obama,” said Mary Smith, whose 9-year-old, Katie, was sporting a new blue “Washington D.C.” hat. “OK, it was a pretend picture.”
