A newly commissioned visitor study is giving Mobile tourism officials a clearer picture of who is actually visiting the Port City, and where the industry might be leaving money on the table.
The Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau presented the findings of its Visitor Profile study, compiled by Toronto-based research firm Longwoods International, to the Mobile City Council. Al Hutchinson, president and CEO of the visitors bureau, said the roughly $17,000 study was meant to help the city better understand its audience and market itself more effectively to new travelers.
According to the study, Mobile drew about 16.8 million person-trips in 2013, split between 8.9 million day trips and 7.9 million overnight stays. The vast majority of those visits were for leisure rather than business, accounting for 93 percent of overnight stays and 89 percent of day trips. Visitor spending totaled nearly $1.2 billion, with overnight guests contributing about $743.3 million and day-trippers spending roughly $441.2 million. The average overnight stay lasted 2.3 nights.
Most Mobile visitors came from nearby states, including Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, along with a notable share from California. More than half said the primary reason for their trip was to visit friends and family, while shopping, the waterfront and dining ranked as the top draws once they arrived.
The study also pointed to several missed opportunities for the tourism industry, including a lack of focus on business travelers, extended overnight stays and markets outside the Southeast and California. Hutchinson said Mobile could also do more to capitalize on visitors’ above-average use of social media, using it to promote the city’s historic sites and cultural attractions to a wider audience.
City officials said the findings will help shape future marketing efforts, including an ongoing rebranding push for the visitors bureau and a planned town hall event later in the month aimed at educating residents about the economic value tourism brings to the Mobile area.