Research and Reports

At Visit Alexandria’s annual meeting on September 26, 2024, the tourism organization highlighted record visitor spending and introduced new President & CEO Todd O’Leary in a celebratory gathering of the hospitality community and city leaders with a theme of “Building for the Future Together.”

Visit Alexandria announced Alexandria’s tourism spending from travelers residing more than 50 miles away grew 17.6% to a record $941 million in calendar year 2023, the fifth highest rate in the state out of 133 localities, according to data released by the Commonwealth of Virginia. In Fiscal Year 2024, City of Alexandria consumption tax revenues (sales, meals and lodging) reached a record $86 million, surpassing the previous record set in Fiscal Year 2023 ($81 million) and up 30% over pre-pandemic levels. An estimated 71% of consumption taxes are paid by non-residents, saving the average Alexandria household $822 per year. Record revenue per available room (RevPAR) of $118 and room supply growth increased Alexandria’s total lodging revenues by 9.4% year-over-year, the highest rate amongst Alexandria’s regional competitive set.

Visit Alexandria’s new President & CEO Todd O’Leary further highlighted the importance of tourism marketing to Alexandria beyond just the visitor economy. He also spoke about future initiatives the organization is focused on for Fiscal Year 2025 and beyond, including:

• Strategic planning to vision the next 5 to 10 years of the organization
• Deepening the organization’s data-driven approach to optimize its promotional efforts
• Strengthening Alexandria’s destination promotion with a high-level, integrated strategy
• Expanding the neighborhoods program to spread the positive impacts of tourism to more areas within the city
• Leveraging major events including the U.S. presidential inauguration and WorldPride DC, both happening in 2025, and America’s 250^th birthday in 2026
• Building on record meetings and group travel to drive mid-week business
• Evolving Visit Alexandria’s inclusive travel initiatives including accessibility and sustainability

The annual meeting culminated in a sneak preview of the organization’s new holiday campaign, “Merry Me.” The Hallmark movie-style campaign with a humorous twist depicts Alexandria’s feeling of holiday magic and connects visitors to the breadth of seasonal experiences.

View the event Press Release

View the Annual Meeting Presentation Document (PDF)

View the 2024 Annual Report

At Visit Alexandria’s Annual Meeting on October 3, 2022, the tourism organization reported on the City’s record consumption tax revenue and the influence of expanded marketing on Alexandria’s economic recovery. Visit Alexandria also unveiled a new marketing campaign aimed at increasing the benefit of visitor spending across the city’s neighborhoods.

Alexandria relies on consumption tax revenues to support core City services and minimize the tax rate for residents. In Fiscal Year 2022, those receipts rebounded from $59 million to a record $76 million. With an estimated 71% of these revenues coming from non-residents, based on analysis of credit card data, visitors saved the average Alexandria household over $750 per year in taxes. Lodging tax revenue collected in Alexandria in Fiscal Year 2022 more than doubled over the previous year but still trails pre-pandemic levels. Virginia Tourism Corporation reports that visitors from more than 50 miles away generated $612 million in direct spending in calendar year 2021 which was up 38% over the prior year.

The organization shared positive results among key performance indicators for Fiscal Year 2022 including:

• 2.9 million web visits (+30% YoY)
• 158 million digital marketing impressions (+26% YoY)
• 1,265 press hits (+21% YoY)
• $46.4 million in group sales leads (+146% YoY)
• 180,000 social media followers (+9% YoY)
• 426 members (+5% YoY)

View the event Press Release

View the new “Expand Your ALX” long-form video ad.

View the Annual Meeting Presentation Document (PDF )

View the 2022 Annual Report

View the presentation slides here.

View the full video recording of the event. 

View the Member Promotions & Programs – Summary and Member Promotions & Programs – Annual Planner.

Visit Alexandria highlighted partnerships and pandemic-resilient results at its 2021 Annual Meeting on Thursday, October 14 at Sheraton Suites Old Town. At the event, entitled “Meeting the Challenge – Embracing Change,” Visit Alexandria also featured Fiscal Year 2021 adaptive strategies and announced Fiscal Year 2022 programs including expanded advertising and a new website. The picture painted on Thursday evening showed the impact of the pandemic and preliminary signs of recovery across Alexandria’s hotel, retail and restaurant sectors. Visit Alexandria’s COVID-adaptive approach tapped into pent-up demand and matched content and marketing channels with changing consumer behavior.

The result was positive results among key performance indicators for Fiscal Year 2021 including:

• 2.3 million website visits, +8% year-over-year (YoY); all-time record set three times since May
• 1,000+ press clips for the fifth year in a row; includes national coverage and record of nearly 100 D.C. regional broadcast clips, +58% YoY
• 125 million digital marketing impressions, +110% YoY
• 785,000 blog pageviews, +31% YoY
• 165,000 social media followers, +8% YoY
• 405 members, +5% YoY

The organization also celebrated Alexandria’s front-line staff, partners, and retiring City Manager Mark Jinks.  Visit Alexandria also discussed emerging travel trends, shared forecasts and showcased new advertising including a spot from the “Drop In” campaign.

View the event Press Release

View the Pre-recorded Presentation Video (31 minutes)

View the Annual Meeting Presentation Document (PDF – includes links to new and recent video ads)

View the Front-line Staff Celebration Video (2 minutes)

View the 2021 Annual Report

View the presentation slides here.

View the full video recording of the event. 

View the Member Promotions & Programs Summary and Annual Planner

In calendar year 2019, Alexandria garnered the highest-ever economic impact from travel. According to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s just-released 2019 Economic Impact of Domestic Travel on Virginia and Localities report, spending from destination market visitors coming from more than 50 miles away was $881 million, producing $28.6 million in local tax revenues for Alexandria. However, these 2019 figures do not account for the devastating impact that COVID-19 has had on the tourism industry.

Fiscal year 2021 programs include the promotion of hybrid meetings and micro weddings and the launch of virtual site tours and experiences. D.C.-regional marketing will include expanded Shop Small strategies to support independent boutiques during the holidays and the second iteration of Alexandria Restaurant Week To-Go in the late winter. A major Black history and travel initiative will increase Visit Alexandria’s capacity to tell an inclusive story of the city’s past and present, and includes a reimagined self-guided driving tour, major photo and video shoot and expanded PR strategies. Destination marketing will focus on a 3-hour drive radius encompassing Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the D.C. Metro, gradually expanding outward as health confidence improves.

Visit Alexandria closed the virtual event with a new video that highlights the resilience of the Alexandria community, featuring the innovation and adaptions of the city’s small businesses, hotels, health department and city government

View the full event video recording here, and the slides-only PDF here.

View the full press release for the event here.

View the “Tribute to the Resilience of the Alexandria Community” video here.

View the 2020 Annual Report here.

The Visit Alexandria Board of Governors has approved the following plan and budget for the organization for the upcoming fiscal year, focusing on strategies for recovery from the impact of COVID-19.

View the full presentation here.

Here are some frequently updated resources on the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry, as well as consumer sentiment during this period.

Destination Analysts (consumer/traveler) https://www.destinationanalysts.com/covid-19-insights/

Longwoods (consumer/traveler) https://longwoods-intl.com/news

MMGY Global (consumer/traveler) https://www.mmgyglobal.com/covid-19/

US Travel Association https://www.ustravel.org/toolkit/covid-19-travel-industry-research

ADARA (search and booking) https://adara.com/traveler-trends-tracker/

Arrivalist (location/mobility) https://www.arrivalist.com/daily-travel-index/

STR (lodging) https://str.com/data-insights-blog/coronavirus-hotel-industry-data-news

Kalibri Labs (lodging) https://www.kalibrilabs.com/industry-health

View the full presentation here.

View the research section only, plus additional slides on national trends that were not presented at the event.

View the new ads only.

Visit Alexandria announced record visitor spending numbers at its annual meeting at the Birchmere Music Hall on September 23, 2019. Visitor spending increased $33 million dollars to $859 million, according to data just released by Virginia Tourism Corporation. This continues the positive growth trend over the past six years for Alexandria’s visitor economy. Other data released at the meeting shows that tax revenue generated by non-residents represents 71% of Alexandria’s sales, meals and lodging tax receipts, saving the average Alexandria household $673 per year. Other highlights of the past year include:

• 72.5% hotel occupancy (exceeding 70% for five straight years)
• 2.3 million website visits to VisitAlexandriaVA.com (+15%)
• 1,190 total press stories (+2%)
• 141,000 social media followers (+8%)
• 382 members (+6%)
• $46 million in meeting leads (+2%)

Throughout fiscal year 2019, Visit Alexandria celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Virginia is for Lovers tourism brand alongside the state. Rita McClenny, president and CEO of Virginia Tourism Corporation, attended Visit Alexandria’s Annual Meeting and highlighted the state’s yearlong celebration. Visit Alexandria announced that in the 50 years since, and adjusted for inflation, Alexandria’s tourism industry has tripled. The presentation also included a look at the year ahead, which will include a new destination advertising campaign, new consumer research, the launch of The Leadership Collection at Alexandria meetings initiative, and a focus on neighborhood content.

For more on FY2019 impact and FY2020 initiatives, view the Visit Alexandria 2019 Annual Report.

View the Visit Alexandria 2019 Annual Meeting Presentation.

On January 13, 2020, Visit Alexandria shared marketing results for the 2019 holiday season.

View the full presentation here.

On September 26, 2019, Patricia Washington presented to the Alexandria City Academy about Visit Alexandria’s organization and functions

View the full presentation here.

On August 13, 2019, Visit Alexandria presented to the Alexandria Hotel Association about the latest lodging and travel trends, at the national, regional, and local level.

View the full presentation here.

On March 26, 2019, Visit Alexandria presented to Alexandria City Council. Topics covered included organizational approach, economic impact, and new initiatives.

View the full presentation here.

On January 28, 2019, Visit Alexandria provided information on new openings and offerings, consumer and tourism research, development around the City, Summer 2019 Metro shutdown response, and members-only marketing opportunities.

View the full presentation here.

The Metro options flyer created in response to the shutdown is available here or at VisitAlexandriaVA.com/MetroOptions.

Visit Alexandria announced record visitor spending numbers at its annual meeting on September 24, 2018.

Reflecting on fiscal year 2018, Visit Alexandria shared that it had another banner year, noting record tourism revenues, local tax receipts, media coverage and web traffic. According to just-released figures from Virginia Tourism Corporation, $826 million in visitor spending (from 50+ miles) produced $27.4 million in tax revenues for Alexandria. Travel also supported 6,546 jobs in Alexandria and spending by non-residents saved each household $616 in taxes. Visit Alexandria announced these results:

• 72.5% hotel occupancy (exceeding the national average of 66.2%)
• 1,167 total press stories (+14%)
• 2.03 million website visits to VisitAlexandriaVA.com (+5%)
• 131,000 social media followers (+19%)

One of Visit Alexandria’s key projects for fiscal year 2019 will be the King Street Corridor Initiative, a public/private partnership focusing on programming, beautification and marketing, spearheaded by the City of Alexandria and Visit Alexandria. In celebration of Alexandria’s new waterfront experience, Visit Alexandria will launch the Portside in Old Town programming series that features free-to-the-public themed weekend happenings in history, art, music and fitness with activities for families and for adults, plus additional pop-up experiences and events.

For more on FY2018 impact and FY2019 initiatives, view the Visit Alexandria 2018 Annual Report.

View the Visit Alexandria 2018 Annual Meeting Presentation.

On January 25, 2018, Visit Alexandria provided information on major openings and events, consumer and tourism research, and members-only marketing opportunities.

View the full presentation here.

The presentation included new data from Visa that shows the breakdown of Alexandria consumption tax payments by cardholder location. Find a direct link to that data here.

Visit Alexandria announced a new immersive experience of Alexandria along with record visitor spending numbers at its annual meeting on September 25, 2017. Visit Alexandria 360 is a virtual reality tour that brings a new dimension to the Extraordinary Alexandria brand. It allows users to explore the city in 360° through VisitAlexandriaVA.com/360 or its mobile app that can be used with virtual reality headsets.

Reflecting on fiscal year 2017, Visit Alexandria shared that it had another banner year, noting record tourism revenues, local tax receipts, hotel occupancy, media coverage and web traffic. According to just-released figures from Virginia Tourism Corporation, $790 million in visitor spending produced $26.6 million in tax revenues for Alexandria. Travel also supported 6,450 jobs in Alexandria and saved each household more than $391 in taxes. Visit Alexandria announced these results:

• 73% hotel occupancy (exceeding the national average of 65.6%)
• 1,023 total press stories (+11%)
• 1.94 million website visits to VisitAlexandriaVA.com (+4%)
• 110,000 social media followers (+29%)

For more on FY2017 impact and FY2018 initiatives, view the Visit Alexandria 2017 Annual Report.

View the Visit Alexandria 2017 Annual Meeting Presentation.

On September 14, 2017, Patricia Washington presented to Alexandria City Academy about Visit Alexandria’s organization and functions.

View the presentation here.

On September 12, 2017, Visit Alexandria presented to members and the Alexandria community about working with NSF and welcoming them to the Carlyle neighborhood.

View the presentation here.

On August 24, 2017, Sara Stanton presented to members about the LGBT traveler, and how to be both welcoming and effective in their business’s marketing efforts.

View the presentation here.

View the action Items

View the handout

On July 27, 2017, Visit Alexandria presented to the Alexandria Hotel Association about the latest in lodging data and marketing trends.

View the presentation here.

On June 19, 2017, Vito Fiore presented to the Visit Alexandria Board of Governors on the top learnings from the Simpleview Summit, a web and digital marketing conference for the tourism industry.

View the presentation

On June 19, 2017, Lorraine Lloyd presented to the Visit Alexandria Board of Governors on Visit Alexandria’s activities associated with the IPW international travel trade show which took place in Washington, DC this year.

View the presentation

On April 20, 2017, Visit Alexandria presented to the National Science Foundation Directorate Liaisons’ Meeting about their upcoming move to Alexandria and how Visit Alexandria can assist them in welcoming visiting panelists.

View the presentation here.

On February 28, 2017, Tom Kaiden presented to the Alexandria Hotel Association about the state of the lodging and tourism industries in Alexandria.

View the presentation

On January 25, 2017, Visit Alexandria and its partners provided information on new initiatives, major openings, economic development, tourism research, and members-only marketing opportunities.

View the presentation

On November 2, 2016, Visit Alexandria held a workshop on welcoming and marketing to the LGBT community. Justin Ayars of Unite Virginia and Wirt Confoy of Virginia Tourism Corporation presented information to members and community partners at Virtue Feed & Grain in Alexandria.

View Justin Ayars’ presentation

View Unite Virginia’s LGBT Engagement Take-away Document

View Virginia Tourism Corporation’s LGBT Tourism Resource Guide

View Visit Alexandria’s LGBT Marketing Action Items

At their annual meeting on September 19, 2016, Visit Alexandria announced the next evolution of its Extraordinary Alexandria brand through its new advertising campaign, “Alex and Andria,” with the tagline, “let’s get together.” The destination marketing organization unveiled the playful new campaign, which highlights the contrasts that make Alexandria unique while deeply reinforcing the brand name of the city.

Reflecting on FY2016, Visit Alexandria shared that it had a banner year, noting record tourism revenues, local tax receipts, hotel occupancy, media coverage and web traffic for Alexandria.

• $771 million in visitor spending produced:
  • $25.5 million in tax revenues for Alexandria
  • Supported 6,340 jobs in Alexandria
  • Saved each household more than $350 in taxes
• 72.9% hotel occupancy (exceeding the national average of 65.5%)
• $110 revenue per available room (highest ever)
• 85,000 social media followers (+42%)
• 1.88 million website visits to VisitAlexandriaVA.com (+22%)
• 925 total press stories (+4%)

View the Visit Alexandria 2016 Annual Report.

View the Visit Alexandria 2016 Annual Presentation.

Learn how the visitor economy supports Alexandria

To read our press release and check out our new ads, click here.

On September 15, 2016, Patricia Washington presented to Alexandria City Academy about the activities and structure of the organization.

View the presentation

On September 9, 2016, Vito Fiore presented to the Alexandria Hotel Association meeting about the state of the lodging industry in Alexandria and across the nation.

View the presentation

From 2014-2016, Visit Alexandria conducted a study of VisitAlexandriaVA.com website visitors to determine the return on investment of the site. The study also revealed other information on how people use our website and their experience in visiting Alexandria.

During the 20 months of the study period (August 2014-March 2016), over 52,000 incremental trips were generated by the website, resulting in $32 million in additional visitor spending. Nearly 15,000 additional days were also spent in Alexandria on trips extended by the site’s influence, resulting in almost $5 million in additional visitor spending. In total, this represents $42 in economic impact for each unique site visitor.

View the study.

On June 20, 2016, Vito Fiore presented to Visit Alexandria’s Board on the top digital marketing insights from the Simpleview Summit held in April in Tucson, Arizona.

View the presentation

On May 13, 2016, Theresa Belpulsi from Destination DC presented to Visit Alexandria and the Alexandria Hotel Association about the significance of the IPW Travel Trade Show that is being held in Washington, D.C. in 2017.

View the presentation

On May 13, 2016, Vito Fiore presented to the Alexandria Hotel Association meeting about the state of the lodging and tourism industries in Alexandria.

View the presentation

On May 4, 2016, Patricia Washington presented a summary of Alexandria’s offerings and tourism impact to front-line staff from Alexandria businesses.  This event was held in collaboration with the Alexandria Small Business Development Center.

View the presentation

Visit Alexandria produced a presentation to their Board of Governors as well as Alexandria City Council to explain the organization’s marketing efforts related to the PBS drama “Mercy Street”, as well as early results.

See the overview presentation here, as well as the early results presented here.

Longwoods Research conducted a study in 2015 on the impact of tourism marketing on a destination’s economic development image.

View the presentation

On January 14, 2016, Visit Alexandria provided information on PBS’ new Civil War drama Mercy Street, new events and major openings, valuable tourism research, and members-only marketing opportunities. View the presentation here.

In 2014, ACVA (now Visit Alexandria) commissioned a study with an independent research firm Destination Analysts to determine the return on investment for its advertising.  The study found that for every dollar of advertising, $171 was generated in incremental visitor spending, and $6 in tax revenue was generated for the City of Alexandria.  This $6-1 ratio was an improvement over the $4-1 ratio found in the 2010 study of a previous ACVA campaign.  See the full study here, which also includes other marketing insights on our visitors and our destination: 2014 Advertising Effectiveness Return on Investment Study.

Our 2015 Annual Meeting was held on September 30, 2015, at the Hotel Monaco Alexandria. We shared a sneak peek of the upcoming PBS drama “Mercy Street,” based in Civil War Alexandria and premiering on January 17, 2016, and provided a look at our marketing strategy that will leverage the unprecedented national spotlight on Alexandria’s heritage.

We also shared some numbers highlighting our activity in the past year:

• $754 million in visitor spending in Alexandria produced $24 million in local tax revenues
• Alexandria’s lodging growth rate outpaced the average performance of its DC-area regional competitors in three key performance metrics:
  • Revenue per available room (+14.7% vs. +9.9%)
  • Average daily rate (+9.0% vs. +4.5%)
  • Occupancy (+5.2 % vs. +5.1%)
• $5.9 million in meeting sales revenue (+7%)
• 1.5 million website visits to VisitAlexandriaVA.com (+37%)
• 305 national and international media stories (+7%

View the Visit Alexandria 2015 Annual Report.

View the 2015 Annual Meeting Presentation.

On September 21, 2015, Vito Fiore presented information on the state of the lodging industry in Alexandria and the outlook for the future. See the presentation here.

On July 20, 2015, Patricia Washington and Alfonso Wright presented insights from two recent conferences on marketing trends and technology. See the presentation here.

On July 9, 2015, Visit Alexandria’s members gathered to celebrate the launch of the new VisitAlexandriaVA.com website and the kickoff of Live Music Week. See the presentation here, which includes a tour of the new website.

On June 4, 2015, Visit Alexandria presented their approach to data-driven marketing at the City Department Heads meeting. See the presentation here.

On April 27, 2015, Patricia Washington presented to “Agenda: Alexandria” on the impact of hotels and tourism.  See the presentation here.

On April 21, 2015, Patricia Washington presented to the Historic Alexandria Resources Commission on the topic of African-American Heritage Tourism.  See the presentation here.

On January 29, 2015, Visit Alexandria unveiled a new name change, new events and major openings, valuable information from a research study, the annual contact calendar, and members-only marketing opportunities. View the presentation here.

On September 29, 2014, ACVA held its Annual Meeting at the Hilton Old Town. See the presentation, the 2014 Annual Report, and the 2014 Advertising Effectiveness Return on Investment Study.

This June, in partnership with VHTA, the ACVA met with interested restaurateurs at Union Street Public House to hear about the new ABC laws that go into effect July 1st.  Click here for a copy of the presentation.

A record year for tourism revenues. A record year for tax receipts. Expanded sales. Hundreds of media hits. A million web site visitors. A new strategy. A new CEO. 2013 was a very productive year. Read about it all in the 2013 Annual Report and check out our preview of what’s ahead in 2014.

Helpful information from the Alexandria Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

Top 10 Insights from the Travel & Tourism Research Association Marketing Outlook Forum, Presentation to the Board – 11/18/13

FY 14 International Marketing Plan, Presentation to the Board – 11/18/13

ACVA Presentation to City Council Work Session – 9/24/13

Annual Presentation to the Board for Fiscal Year 2013 – 8/19/13