Here is how Lancaster County tourist attractions are adapting to trends in 2024
A record 9.92 million tourists visited Lancaster County in 2023, spending $2.58 billion to eat, shop, play and stay here, according to a recent report from Tourism Economics. That's a 1.5% increase in visitors and 4.3% increase in spending compared to 2022's 9.77 million visitors and $2.45 billion in spending in 2022 – a cause for celebration for the industry that suffered such a huge blow when the pandemic forced closures right before its busy summer season in 2020.
And yet there are signs in 2023's statistics that the county's tourism surge of 2022 has eased: Lodging demand – known as room nights sold – was down 3.36% over the previous year even as lodging revenue increased 1.5%.
Revenge travel, a phrase sometimes used to describe the surge in people wanting to make up for loss of travel during the pandemic, seemed to fade as inflation pressures grew. Although the inflation rate has fallen, visitors are still cognizant of costs, local tourism leaders said.
Joel Cliff, spokesperson for Discover Lancaster, the county's tourism marketing agency, is cautiously optimistic that 2024 will be a strong year for the industry, if not record-setting. The county's position as an affordable destination resonates with regional travelers in the current economy, he said.
Tourism plays an important role in Lancaster County – and the state. In the county, tourism spending supported 25,679 county jobs in total, including 16,922 direct industry jobs in 2023. These figures both grew by 2% to 3% last year and keep tourism in the top 10 largest non-agriculture private sector employers in the county.
Lancaster County is part of the Dutch Country Roads tourism region, which together with Dauphin County drove 20.7% of tourism to the state in 2022. That's slightly less than the Philadelphia region at 21.1%, according to Tourism Economics' analysis.
"Our county's wide array of attractions and destinations is one of our key strengths," David Aungst, president of High Hotels Limited wrote in an email. "The challenges ahead stem primarily from macroeconomic trends across the U.S. The increased cost of living associated with 'sticky' inflation (when prices for goods and services don't seem to be coming down any time soon) is starting to impact families' disposable income at the same time that excess savings associated with COVID relief programs are starting to run out. This could lead to a decrease in leisure demand. While High Hotels is in a favorable position, attracting and retaining staff also remains a challenge for some companies in the industry."
READ: Hershey Farm, Bird-in-Hand Corp. rebuilding projects among changes at Lancaster County tourist attractions
READ: These 50 venues are featured in two new Discover Lancaster trails
READ: Lancaster County tourism hits final stretch of 2023 with strong stats, new Christmas events
Here's a look at four factors that impacting tourism here for the rest of this year:
A boost from the US Women's Open
Lancaster County's hotels saw 63% occupancy rate for May, which is 6.4 percentage points higher than last year, according to preliminary data from CoStar, a data analytics company. The increase coincides with the beginning of U.S. Women's Open, an international event that was held here May 31 to June 2. The USGA has declined to release actual counts of visitors but had said the event was expected to draw 100,000 visitors, mostly day-trippers.
"I think it's fair to say that the Women's Open played a role in that, but there are likely some additional factors such as 'Daniel' being a brand-new show for Sight & Sound this year and possibly the events schedule at places like the convention center and Spooky Nook," Cliff said. "Still, if the tournament brought in some more overnight stays than what we were expecting, then all the better!"
Tourism and other businesses involved with the Open had expressed hopes that the exposure of the lush rolling hills of the county, its history and amenities here would entice future visits. Results of those impressions are not easily measured.
"I thought the visuals were beautiful and there was a lot of good press," said Stacey Irwin, PhD., a Millersville University communication professor and an expert on the media. "There's research out there that says those kinds of things are helpful but it is not a definite this equals that."
READ: Bookings, exposure boost Lancaster County business hopes after 2024 US Women's Open
READ: 'It's like our Olympics': How the US Women's Open is expected to impact Lancaster County's economy
The right price
Tourism venues are aware that although the rate of inflation has fallen, visitors are still feeling the sting. Travelers looking for value, not necessarily cheap, events, said Eric Conner, stationmaster of Strasburg Rail Road, Strasburg Township, which had a record year of revenue in 2023 with visitation of about 300,000 on par with the previous year.
"People are purchasing some of the higher-end experiences such as the Bonnie and Clyde experience, the Great Train Robbery, the Halloween event and Christmas (excursions)," Conner said. "Christmas consistently sells out. We put more seats out and it sells because trains and Christmas just go hand in hand. So people are purchasing more of the unique experiences which help create higher revenue price points."
He said local visitors and out-of-towners don't mind paying a higher price for something special.
"If the experience is top quality and if the experience is memorable, the price point is not of a huge concern or is not the main concern," Conner said. "People want the experience, people want the top quality. So that's what we see at Christmas time."
Refreshing Mountain in Clay Township turned to a new pricing system.
"It does feel like customers are price sensitive, more reactive and searching for deals or discounts than the previous season," said Justin Harnish, manager at Refreshing Mountain Retreat & Adventure Center in Clay Township. He said the center revamped one of its packages, making it bigger and less expensive and promoting it more. The biggest change, he said, was to stop charging large groups by the hour separately for each activity like zip-lining, escape rooms and ax throwing. Now, day visitors pay for a certain period of time and the activities are bundled.
The single price point is easy to understand and received positive feedback from visitors and staff. He said it is something the center continues to tweak to avoid crowds and long waits. About 22,000 visitors step into the center annually.
Another tactic is to offer discounts to extend activities of visitors. Kreider Farms Tour in Penn Township has partnered with the Lancaster Stormers, the county's Atlantic League baseball team, where its products are sold. Kreider saw about 23,000 people, local and from out of town, last year on its tour.
"We have a promotion going on with them where if they go (to a game), they can use their ticket as a buy one, get one free child to enter," said Debora Lobb, farm tour manager. The farm tour is also part of Discover Lancaster's new Farm Adventure Trail, which highlights about 30 county's farm and food-related venues in an app. Most of the attractions offer freebies or discounts to trail visitors.
Big draws: Sight & Sound and booked conventions
Sight & Sound Theatre's show for 2023, "Moses", a show that had been performed in 2014 and shown in theaters in 2018, did better than expected, said Sara Murphy, vice president of brand development.
Sight & Sound, with its staff of 500, is a perennial driver of tourism in the county, particularly group tours, which are visiting at close to pre-pandemic levels. The group tours often make several stops in the county in addition to the show.
The theater's new show, "Daniel," opened in March and is setting records, she said. Sight & Sound expects to welcome 850,000 people through its doors this year, which is 97% of its total capacity.
READ: 'Daniel,' Sight & Sound's newest production, now on stage; here's what you need to know
"The trends we're seeing the way the booking patterns are going right now, we do anticipate being fully sold out by August," she said.
Murphy said organized group tours are close to 2019 levels.
The average bus count is about 12 to 13 buses per show, Murphy said, with groups making up about half of the audience.
Another driver of visits is the convention center, which saw its best year last year with nearly 250,000 attendees through its main hall. That's a conservative estimate that doesn't include smaller gatherings.
In 2023, there were 18 major multiday events at the Lancaster County Convention Center, said convention center executive director, Kevin Molloy.
"We're excited on top of that, our attendance was greater than any other year and our best year was 2017 and we beat that by 17%," Molloy said. "In 2024, we're gonna beat last year's record by one with 19, which is a good thing. We are currently about 5,000 ahead of attendance."
Last year had some bookings that aren't duplicated – one over the Fourth of July and one between Christmas and New Year's, both typically difficult times to book conventions.
Molloy expects to get close to last year's record but not exceed it. The next two years, he said, look good as well, with 19 and 18 priority conventions already booked.
READ: Science fiction convention Shore Leave prepares for next generation in Lancaster County this July
READ: Lancaster County Convention Center eyes renovation project to reuse Vine Street lobby
Business travel slow to return
Business travelers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels and some county tourism leaders don't think they will. For the most part, the county's surge in visitation has been leisure travelers.
"I still don't see the volume of corporate travel that we had before (the pandemic) and a lot of our hotels relied on that and still do rely on that," said Steve Sikking, who operates the Eden Resort and is a board member of Discover Lancaster. "And until that really comes back full force – and I'm not sure that it will – we will all, those of us that relied on it, we will all be looking for alternative businesses to fill in for that, which we have lost."
What may be a surprising example of how remote work forged during the pandemic has upended business travel locally is Manheim Auto Auction in Penn Township.
"They were probably one of the largest room producers for professional travelers, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of every week of the year," Sikking said. "And they went virtual. Thousands of people that were coming in every week – these were car dealers and car buyers and they were going to their (Manheim's) lanes to look at their product. They're now doing it virtually. And that was a big, big factor for many of the hotels in the area."
According to Joey Hughes, Manheim Pennsylvania vice president and general manager, prepandemic, roughly 30% to 35% of its 5,500 dealers attended sales in person.
During COVID-19, Manheim moved to a fully digital sales environment. Despite resuming in-person sales, it has not seen any significant return to in-person attendance by Pennsylvania buyers or sellers.
"Today, less than 5% of our weekly buyers attend in person with seven of the physical lanes running vehicles in-lane and the remaining 28 lanes offering sales via Simulcast," Hughes said in an email. "Simulcast is a livestreamed sale that enables dealers to digitally participate (get a real-time view of the lanes, bid, buy, etc.) in any sale from any location."
Across all Manheim locations, roughly 70% of its wholesale vehicle inventory today is sold to digital buyers and that trend is expected to continue even as Manheim's workforce has grown to about 675 people in the county.
