D.C. welcomed a record number of visitors last year as tourism rebounded from its sharp pandemic-era drop-off, the city’s marketing arm announced Wednesday.
A new report from Destination DC shows that nearly 26 million people visited the District in 2023, up from 22.1 million visitors in 2022. The 2023 figure represents a near doubling of tourism from the nadir in 2020, when 13.3 million people came to the capital during a time of covid-related closures and travel restrictions.
The previous record was set in 2019, when there were 25.1 million visitors.
About 24 million of last year’s visitors were domestic travelers, while 1.95 million were international visitors, the report found. In 2022, there were approximately 20.7 million domestic visitors and 1.4 million from abroad.
The city is particularly interested in courting international visitors, said Elliott L. Ferguson II, the president and CEO of Destination DC, since they play an outsize role in bolstering the local economy. According to an earlier report by the marketing group, foreigners are typically 7 percent of the city’s visiting population but account for 27 percent of spending. “They stay longer, they spend more and we want them back,” Ferguson said at a news conference Wednesday.
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“That increase in visitation does not happen by accident, but by very concerted efforts,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at the news conference. She noted that visitors brought $10.2 billion in spending, which supported more than 102,000 jobs, according to the Destination DC report.
The rebound comes as city officials and residents fret over increased crime in recent years and high commercial vacancy rates amid changing work patterns.
In a Washington Post-Schar School poll, residents said they were more worried about public safety now more than a year ago. Violent crime increased 21 percent between 2021 and 2023 before dipping in early 2024, city data shows.
The same poll showed that many residents have opted to work from home, a move that has left downtown D.C. with a glut of empty offices, which some employers have vacated. The downtown vacancy rate for office space is just over 21 percent, according to the DowntownDC Business Improvement District, and one forecast estimates it could reach 27 percent in three years. Empty storefronts serve as a stark reminder of the challenges the city faces as it rebuilds its economy.
But Bowser said the city’s future remains bright. “When you come to Washington, D.C., you will be able to see new hotel offerings, more restaurants, and you can expect even more large events and gatherings,” she said Wednesday.
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