Bucks County’s Tourism Industry Sees Record-Setting Summer

Bucks County’s tourism industry had a record-setting summer, according to data released last week.

Hotel occupancy throughout the county was higher than 73 percent the entire summer, with August hitting a record 74.5 percent occupancy. Officials also noted that tourists were paying more per room than they had in past years.

Visit Bucks County Vice President Paul Bencivengo said the papal visit in September also helped draw pilgrims to Bucks County. He noted religious tourism sites like the Shrine of St. Katherine Drexel saw thousands of extra visitors during the papal weekend.

“Tourism in Bucks County is thriving,” Visit Bucks County President Jerry Lepping said.

Visit Bucks County leaders told the room the fall season is Bucks County’s for the taking.

In 2014, tourism generated $937.2 million in local economic impact, $126.4 million in taxes and supported 11,863 jobs, according to numbers from Tourism Economics and Visit Philadelphia.

Bencivengo told the crowd that Visit Bucks County hosted more than a dozen big events in 2015, including the inaugural Bucks County Dragon Boat Festival, Bucks County Curling Club “Big Buckin’ Bonspiel,” the Pennsylvania Prothonotaries and Clerks of Courts Association Annual Conference and eBay’s Enterprise Sales Conference.

Along with a push for more video, images and articles, VisitBucksCounty.com is now pulling in 1.3 million page views per year and more than 77,000 video views. A revamp of the tourism website is slatted for 2016.

Online marketing was big for Visit Bucks County in 2015. From Google ads to online videos, the tourism agency worked to reach the millions of people who live within a three-hour drive of  Bucks County. Social media has also been a big marketing avenue for Visit Bucks County. From sponsored shares to organic traffic, local tourism benefited from the tourism agencies 54,000 followers and profiles across all of the largest social media sites.

Billboards and press mentions still remain a high priority for tourism marketing, Bencivengo said.

Washington D.C., Central Pennsylvania and Long Island,  New York are all areas where Visit Bucks County will work to reach over the next year. In the past few months, web traffic to Visit Bucks County from the Washington D.C. area has increased more than 1,500 percent, Bencivengo said.

Also at the meeting, TV personality Don Polec spoke to attendees about ways to use video to market their business or event.

Looking toward 2016, Visit Bucks County plans to increase efforts to market the area for weddings and meetings, both areas where growth has been seen.