Hotels In Fort Lauderdale | "Fort Lauderdale area expects 13 million visitors in 2013"

Source      : http://www.bizjournals.com
Category    : Hotels In Fort Lauderdale
By          : Ft. Lauderdale Airport Hotels
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Broward County's tourism leader joked about the Miami Dolphins stadium push on Friday, but also had a serious prediction of 13 million visitors in the county this year, up from 12.04 million in 2013.

Hotels In Fort Lauderdale

The overview of tourism by Nicki Grossman, CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, came as part of the Fifth Annual Economic Engine Performance report. In upcoming blogs, I'll look at the outlook for Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

See the attached slideshow for statistics and images about the CVB's advertising campaign.
Grossman said Broward County had the second-highest hotel occupancy rate in the state at 87.6 percent in February, the highest since 2006. That percentage was up 3.2 percent from 2011.
The average daily room rate hit $151.54, the highest since 2008, and for all of 2012 was up 3.4 percent. More than 90 hotels had sellouts during February, Grossman said.
Grossman, who is a former county commissioner, said 14,647 people are employed in Broward tourism and each 85 additional visitors sparks one job creation. The spending generated by the visitors in 2012 was $9.8 billion.
Grossman took aim at the Miami-Dade County Commission, which is moving to minimize the impact of future Super Bowls on Broward County, which has hosted teams and had the majority of fans. The Broward County Commission rebuffed efforts to help Miami-Dade in funding for the stadium and Miami-Dade officials don't want Super Bowl teams to stay in Broward anymore.
"We are actually watching to see how many Broward residents buy tickets for the Miami Dolphins in the Miami stadium and the Miami Super Bowl," Grossman said, punching the world "Miami" each time.
Grossman said she is optimistic that Broward's fourth attempt to build a convention center hotel could actually work this time. The convention center in 2012 was granted LEED gold standard for existing buildings by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Grossman said the county doesn't want to compete with the mega 1 million-square-foot plus convention centers, but would could compete for 70 percent of additional businesses that want a convention center hotel.
"The building has to grow. We have lost clients and customers who have outgrown this 600,000-square-foot facility," she said.
The CVB's current marketing highlights six business-oriented hotels near the convention center.
Grossman said 26 percent of tourism in Broward is group related, compared with less than 2 percent when the convention center opened.