As Baltimore marks a slight year-over-year increase in visitors, local leaders and tourism officials say an expanded convention center and more funding dedicated to promoting the city are crucial to boosting growth.
The city saw 26.2 million visitors in 2017, a 1 percent increase over the year before, according to an annual report released Tuesday by Visit Baltimore. The visits generated $5.7 billion in direct spending, yielding $717 million in city and state tax revenues and sustaining more than 85,600 jobs.
“What we have to offer is growing day by day,” Mayor Catherine Pugh told members of the hospitality industry assembled for Visit Baltimore’s annual meeting at the Hilton Baltimore, timed to coincide with the report’s unveiling. Pugh said the city has an “incredibly authentic yet new visitor experience” and a story that “needs to be told to people that haven’t heard it.”
The mayor acknowledged that effort will need to be accompanied by improvements to the aging Baltimore Convention Center, which was built in 1979 and hasn’t been updated in more than 20 years. The center took a hit last month when the Natural Products Expo East, one of the city’s largest conventions, announced it has outgrown the space available there and will be moving to Philadelphia in 2020.