Project

Tourism and Convention Business in Greater Philadelphia

By Economic Development Research Group for the Pew Charitable Trusts, 2007

EDR Group evaluated the health and vigor of two different travel segments to the Greater Philadelphia area – a five county region. In both examinations, historical trends of visits (conventions) were considered along with current trip profiles – visits from out of region, trip duration, travel party size, average daily spending.

As part of the study, EDR Group conducted research in the following areas:

  • Benchmarking Greater Philadelphia as a culture and arts destination against Boston, Massachusetts, Baltimore, Maryland, Washington DC, and Chicago, Illinois.
  • Assessing Philadelphia as a convention destination within its relevant regional market and tier of convention facilities and testing the feasibility of the Convention   and Visitor Bureau's growth projections supporting the case for expanding the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
  • Applying an IMPLAN impact model to measure economic impacts from the culture-arts leisure travel segment and visits associated with the PA Convention Center, with and without expansion of the facility.