Posted Jan 30, 2014, 10:34 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Portland
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More tourists put Portland at top of travel plans
http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news...f-travel-plans
Created on Thursday, 30 January 2014 06:00. | Written by Steve Law. |
City's culture, food, 'feel' draw record visitors in 2013
Quote:
Tres Shannon never set out to create a tourist attraction when he opened his quirky doughnut shop in a seedy part of downtown 11 years ago.
Now lines of customers form outside Voodoo Doughnut around the clock, and tourists carrying pink boxes of doughnuts are a common airport sighting. Voodoo’s two funky shops are among Portland attractions that lured a record number of tourists here last year — shattering prior levels.
The record number of tourists in Portland are all the more impressive considering 2013 was a lukewarm year for conventions here, and the local economy continued its slow-motion recovery act. All those tourists helped make downtown feel more vibrant, and pump more money into the economy.
“No question about it, it was a gangbuster year,” says David Schargel, founder of Portland Walking Tours. His business was up 20 percent, enabling him to operate tours year-round for the first time.
Industry experts say the best gauge of tourism comes from hotel business in the central city, where most visitors stay. Proprietary hotel industry data compiled by Smith Travel Research shows Portland’s central city broke records in 2013 for number of overnight guests, occupancy level, average room prices and total rental income.
“It will be the highest occupancy we’ve seen in the central city since 1999,” when such data was first made available, says Brian McCartin, Travel Portland executive vice president for convention and tourism sales.
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