DC Tourism Increased 3% Last Year. Will Hotels Follow?

WASHINGTON, DC—Washington DC received 17.4 million US visitors last year, according to a report prepared by D.K. Shifflet, for an increase of 3.1% over 2012. Even better, these visitors spent $6.7 billion, according to IHS Global Insight, for an increase of almost 8% over 2012. These figures were released in tandem with the city’s annual Travel Rally, which was held at the Park at CityCenter at the new CityCenterDC development as part of the Travel National Travel and Tourism Week’s festivities.

For the retail real estate asset class, the increased spending bodes particularly well. Hotels, though, are another story. Their performance has been mixed bag here, but largely lackluster as a sampling of earnings reports for Q1 show.