SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – With only a few days left in 2022, visitor numbers in the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry are expected to break records as we end the year.
The final numbers are not in yet, but so far, Visit Savannah says that they are expecting to finish 2022 with their strongest year ever.
Visit Savannah says that visitor numbers were consistently good throughout the entire year, hotel and vacation rental numbers were very strong and visitor spending was at an all time high.
So far this year the city has seen about 71 percent occupancy, which beat out other similar markets like Hilton Head, Charleston and St. Augustine.
Joe Marinelli from Visit Savannah says not only has business travel finally started to pick back up but also leisure travelers are once again returning after a break during the pandemic.
“St. Patrick’s Day is always a home run for our community but it’s things like the Savannah music festival, Savannah voice festival, the Savannah jazz festival and on and on and on, having those events back, most all of them took a couple of years off, but having those mainstays on our calendar is huge for us,” he said.
Not only is Savannah a drivable destination but flights in and out of the Savannah Hilton Head International Airport continue to bring in new visitors – now reaching almost 40 non-stop flights during peak travel in the summer months.
Overall, it was a great year for tourism in Savannah, but next week we turn the calendar to a new year. What can we expect to happen?
Visit Savannah says we could see things soften up and those numbers go down a little but we will see if the pros outweigh the cons in the new year.
There are huge positives like the Hyundai Plant in Bryan County, which already means we are seeing executives traveling back and forth from South Korea.
Other international travelers are also expected to make their way back to the Hostess City in 2023.
However, with the pandemic behind us, people are not as restricted on where they can go, as they were the past few years.
Dr. Michael Toma from Georgia Southern says Savannah is a driving-based economy, and with possible cutback from a recession, he predicts destinations that would suffer more during a recession would be flying destinations.
“Matter of fact, Savannah might be well positioned to capture some of that travel from folks who otherwise might be flying out of Atlanta to go somewhere else might decide to go down to Savannah for a long weekend so i think we will be in fairly sound shape as a result of that activity in the regional tourism industry,” he said.
So overall, not a bad outlook for 2023, as we know the tourism industry is important to Savannah, especially now that Broughton Street is finally back open for business.
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