Destination marketing statistics at a glance
Destination marketing now sits at the intersection of demand generation, attribution, and brand building. The numbers below show why the category is getting more operationally sophisticated: some DMOs are still optimizing for awareness, while others are measuring visitor spend, jobs, tax revenue, and campaign ROI.
Contents
- The current shape of destination marketing
- Budget and channel mix
- What the ROI data says
- Destination performance snapshots
- What the larger market is signaling
- How to read these statistics
The current shape of destination marketing
The clearest pattern in the data is that destination marketing is no longer just about filling rooms or pushing awareness. It now spans visitation growth, economic impact, media efficiency, and measurement discipline.
A few figures make that shift obvious. New York City Tourism + Conventions said 2023 visitation reached 62.2 million visitors, including 11.6 million international and 50.6 million domestic visitors (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report). That total represented a 9.6% increase over 2022 and reached 93% of 2019 benchmark levels (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report). Domestic travel reached 95% of benchmark levels, while international travel reached 86% (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report).
That gap between domestic and international recovery matters because it shows how uneven demand can be across segments. It also helps explain why destinations keep balancing short-haul campaigns against broader international recovery efforts. NYC said the business travel market typically accounts for over 20% of the market (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report), which is another reminder that a destination strategy can depend on more than leisure demand alone.
Brand USA’s FY25 Economic Impact Study points in the same direction but at national scale. It says FY25 marketing generated 926,000 incremental visitors and more than $3.3 billion in incremental spend (Brand USA FY25 Economic Impact Study). It also says that same marketing supported nearly 45,000 incremental jobs and generated nearly $1 billion in combined federal, state, and local tax revenue (Brand USA FY25 Economic Impact Study).
Fast facts
- NYC Tourism said 2023 visitation reached 62.2 million visitors (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report).
- NYC room nights sold reached 36.1 million at year-end, up 7% year over year (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report).
- NYC average hotel occupancy was 81.6% in 2023, 10% above 2022 (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report).
- Visit Orlando welcomed 75,333,800 visitors in 2024, up 1.8% from 2023 (Brand USA / Visit Orlando press release).
- Massachusetts hosted 52.6 million visitors in 2024 (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism).
- Massachusetts direct visitor spending totaled $24.2 billion in 2024 (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism).
- Chattanooga Tourism Co. reported 11.1 million visitors in 2024 (Chattanooga Tourism Co. Annual Report).
- Destination International said more than 250 professionals advanced through CDME and PDM certification programs in 2024 (Destinations International 2024 Annual Reports).
Budget and channel mix
The marketing stack is highly digital, but it is not narrowly digital. The 2025 State of Destination Marketing report says 85% of DMOs are maintaining or increasing digital advertising budgets (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). At the same time, 83% of DMOs focus on programmatic advertising, 97% use display ads, 90% use social media advertising, and 80% use search engine marketing (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing).
That mix suggests a broad-funnel approach rather than a single-channel bet. It also shows that destination marketers are using paid media across multiple layers of intent, from awareness to active trip planning.
The same report gives a useful read on what marketers value and where they struggle. 60% of DMOs use clicks as their top metric (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). 54% struggle to demonstrate clear ROI, and 37% identify tracking and attribution as key challenges (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). 51% say data analysis is a major challenge, and 45% struggle to turn data into actionable strategies (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing).
Channel and measurement snapshot
| Area | Statistic | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Digital ad budget direction | 85% maintaining or increasing budgets | Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing |
| Programmatic use | 83% | Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing |
| Display ads | 97% | Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing |
| Social media advertising | 90% | Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing |
| Search engine marketing | 80% | Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing |
| Top metric | 60% use clicks | Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing |
| ROI challenge | 54% struggle to demonstrate clear ROI | Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing |
| Attribution challenge | 37% cite tracking and attribution | Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing |
The table shows a market that has already adopted the tools of modern performance marketing. The constraint is not access to channels. The constraint is proving which channels actually move visitation, spend, and return.
The same survey also shows where teams are placing their bets. 63% of DMOs use AI for content creation, but only 28% use AI for data analysis (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). That split suggests content production is moving faster than analytical workflow automation. In practical terms, many teams are adopting AI where the workflow is easiest to standardize, while attribution and decision support remain harder problems.
What the ROI data says
The strongest destination marketing programs are increasingly justified through outcomes beyond clicks. Brand USA’s FY2024 ROI report said each dollar of Brand USA marketing generated $24.56 of visitor spending (Brand USA FY2024 ROI report). That is a very specific way to frame marketing efficiency: not as media efficiency alone, but as the downstream effect on visitor spend.
The same report said Brand USA generated $5.9 billion in incremental visitor spending to the U.S. in FY2024 and $12.8 billion in total economic activity (Brand USA FY2024 ROI report). It also said the activity sustained 31,995 jobs and generated $1.7 billion in incremental federal, state, and local taxes (Brand USA FY2024 ROI report).
At the program level, the FY25 Economic Impact Study expands the same logic. Brand USA said FY25 marketing generated $7.2 billion in total economic impact, nearly 45,000 incremental jobs, and nearly $1 billion in combined federal, state, and local tax revenue (Brand USA FY25 Economic Impact Study). Over FY13 to FY25, Brand USA said its marketing generated 11.3 million incremental visitors, $38.1 billion in incremental spend, and $82.9 billion in total economic impact (Brand USA FY25 Economic Impact Study).
Those multi-year totals are important because destination marketing is often a compounding game. A single campaign can matter, but the more revealing metric is what repeated investment does over time. The Brand USA figures suggest that sustained programs can produce a long runway of measurable outcomes, not just one-off spikes.
Destination performance snapshots
A few destinations in the dataset show how different the same category can look in practice.
New York City
NYC Tourism said 2023 visitation reached 62.2 million visitors, with 11.6 million international visitors and 50.6 million domestic visitors (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report). Room nights sold reached 36.1 million at year-end, up 7% year over year, and average hotel occupancy hit 81.6%, up 10% from 2022 (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report). The winter 2024 social campaign used 140 organic posts and produced 3.2 million impressions and 20,200 engagements (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report).
NYC also reported that its meeting-focused marketing produced over 6 million ad impressions (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report). That is useful because it shows that business events remain a measurable line of effort inside the broader destination mix. The report also says Canada and Mexico together grew 42% year over year and reached 98% of pre-pandemic levels, while overseas markets grew 21% year over year and reached 86% of benchmark levels (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report).
Orlando
Visit Orlando welcomed 75,333,800 visitors in 2024, up 1.8% from 2023 (Brand USA / Visit Orlando press release). That total included 68,840,300 domestic visitors and 6.5 million international visitors (Brand USA / Visit Orlando press release). Canada supplied 1.29 million visitors, up 2.7% year over year (Brand USA / Visit Orlando press release). The 2024 visitor mix was 81% domestic leisure, 10% domestic business, and 9% international visitation (Brand USA / Visit Orlando press release).
Those mix figures are especially useful because they separate volume from composition. A destination can grow without changing mix much, or it can shift toward higher-value segments. The Orlando figures suggest a broad base dominated by domestic leisure, with meaningful international contribution layered on top.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts hosted 52.6 million visitors in 2024 and generated $24.2 billion in direct visitor spending (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism). That spending produced $2.3 billion in state and local tax revenue and supported 155,808 jobs (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism). The state also recorded 50.1 million domestic visitors and 2.5 million international visitors in 2024 (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism).
One detail stands out here: domestic visitors still accounted for 83% of all visitor spend in 2024 (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism). That means the economic story is not just about raw visitor counts. It is about how much each visitor segment contributes to the spend mix. Massachusetts also reported $412 million in state hotel room occupancy tax collections and $365 million in local room occupancy tax collections (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism).
Chattanooga
Chattanooga Tourism Co. reported 11.1 million visitors in 2024 (Chattanooga Tourism Co. Annual Report). The organization said its 2025 paid media delivered 205.3 million paid media impressions, up 15.3% from 2024 (Chattanooga Tourism Co. Annual Report). It also said coverage reached a combined 2.5 billion unique visitors through publications and that 26 U.S.-based and international journalists were hosted for visits (Chattanooga Tourism Co. Annual Report).
This destination snapshot is useful because it ties paid media, earned coverage, and booking activity together. Chattanooga reported 586 group bookings pursued, up 16.7% from 2024, and 306 events booked, up 12.5% from 2024 (Chattanooga Tourism Co. Annual Report). Those events generated $211.4 million in total economic impact, up 16.7% from 2024 (Chattanooga Tourism Co. Annual Report).
Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s tourism expenditure associated with inbound tourism was HK$195 billion in 2024, compared with a benchmark figure of HK$207.3 billion (HKTB Annual Report 2024/25). Overnight per-capita spending was HK$5,490 in 2024 versus a benchmark of HK$5,800, and average length of stay for overnight visitors was 3.2 nights (HKTB Annual Report 2024/25). Overnight visitor satisfaction was 8.8 out of 10 in 2024 (HKTB Annual Report 2024/25).
These measures highlight a different dimension of destination performance. Spending, length of stay, and satisfaction sit alongside visitation, giving a fuller view of how the market is recovering and where value is being created.
Larger market signals
The category-level signals are consistent across multiple reports. Most DMOs are not retreating from paid media. They are maintaining or increasing digital budgets, using display, social, search, and programmatic in parallel, and trying to solve attribution rather than abandon the channel mix altogether (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing).
The campaign structure is also evolving. 52% of DMOs favor always-on campaigns over seasonal campaigns, while 40% still favor seasonal campaigns (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). 42% report improved brand awareness as the biggest impact of always-on marketing (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). That suggests many teams see value in maintaining a persistent presence rather than only activating around peak travel windows.
Audience targeting is becoming more specific as well. 66% of DMOs extensively focus on outdoor enthusiasts, 85% are maintaining or increasing digital budgets, and 15% use advanced personalization techniques (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). That combination implies that segmentation is common, but deeper personalization is still relatively underused.
Social media remains nearly universal. 91% of DMOs use social media for marketing, and 99% rank Facebook and Instagram among their top five channels (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). At the same time, 84% use data for digital marketing insights, 75% use it for tracking visitor stats, and 69% use it for market research (Sojern 2025 State of Destination Marketing). That means data is already embedded in decision-making, even if teams still struggle with attribution and actionability.
Destination International’s development metrics add one more layer. More than 250 professionals advanced through CDME and PDM certification programs in 2024, and the Destination International Foundation raised $1.26 million, a 28% increase over the prior year (Destinations International 2024 Annual Reports). That points to a field that is still investing in professional capacity, not just campaign execution.
How to read these statistics
The best way to interpret destination marketing statistics is to separate three different questions.
First, how much demand is being created? That is where visitation, trip volume, room nights, and engagement figures fit. NYC’s 62.2 million visitors, Orlando’s 75.3 million visitors, and Massachusetts’ 52.6 million visitors all answer that question from different angles (NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report; Brand USA / Visit Orlando press release; Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism).
Second, how efficiently is the marketing being run? That is where impressions, clicks, and ROI appear. Brand USA’s $24.56 in visitor spending per marketing dollar is a concise efficiency signal, while NYC’s 3.2 million impressions from 140 organic posts shows how campaign output can be measured at the channel level (Brand USA FY2024 ROI report; NYC Tourism 2023-24 Annual Report).
Third, what economic value is being produced? That is where visitor spend, jobs, and tax revenue matter most. Massachusetts’ $24.2 billion in direct visitor spending, Brand USA’s $5.9 billion in incremental visitor spending, and Chattanooga’s $211.4 million in event impact show why destination marketing is often judged as an economic development function as much as a communications function (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism; Brand USA FY2024 ROI report; Chattanooga Tourism Co. Annual Report).
The data in this set makes one thing clear. Destination marketing is now a measurement-heavy discipline with multiple proof points, and the strongest programs are the ones that can connect awareness, visitation, spend, and economic impact without losing the thread between them.