Destination drew 7 million visitors and more than $1 billion in spending
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – Newport Beach & Company, the official destination marketing organization for the City of Newport Beach released the results of its group sales and leisure marketing efforts for fiscal year 2015. The company booked more 135,675 rooms, which generated $72.6 million dollars in revenue. According to STR, Inc. – a leader in hotel research and data – that is equivalent to nearly 30 percent of all rooms sold in Newport Beach last fiscal year – a historic high for the company. As a result, Newport Beach hosted 7 million visitors who spent more than $1 billion dollars between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015*.
At its Annual Marketing Outlook Dinner on October 21 at the Island Hotel Newport Beach, more than 200 community partners from the hospitality and tourism industry gathered to celebrate Newport Beach & Company’s past fiscal year successes and accomplishments across the company’s business units – including Visit Newport Beach, Newport Beach TV, Celebrate Newport Beach, Dine Newport Beach and Enterprise Newport Beach – that work in tandem to grow the economic vitality of the community.
“With tourism so important to the local economy, group sales and leisure marketing continue to be central elements of our work,” said Gary Sherwin, president and CEO of Newport Beach & Company. “I’m so proud of the dramatic growth of more than 600 percent in room nights compared to five years ago, which points to enhanced economic health and quality of life within our community.”
By leveraging relationships with leading meeting planners across the nation, the Visit Newport Beach group sales team booked 79,375 room nights for an estimated $51.1 million in economic impact.
Additionally, through marketing efforts in digital communications, public relations and advertising, Visit Newport Beach elevated the community as a luxury leisure destination among a record audience, resulting in more than 7 billion media impressions throughout the 2015 fiscal year. For the first time, the company conducted a research study to measure leisure-marketing results, which generated more than 56,300 rooms booked for a total economic impact of $21.5 million.
Additional successes for the company included the launch of Dine Newport Beach’s award winning website DineNB.com in September, the development of a new digital media center and original programming for Newport Beach TV and star-studded London promotion and Christmas Boat Parade media events.
For more information please visit www.newportbeachandco.com.
* 2015 Visitor Profile/Destination Analysts; 2015 Advertising Effectiveness Study/H2R Market Research; STR, Inc.
About Newport Beach & Company
Founded in January 2013, Newport Beach & Co. is a non-profit organization established to serve as the official marketing agency for the city of Newport Beach. The agency brings together all of the marketing entities connected to the Newport Beach brand, and is designed to oversee separate business units that include Visit Newport Beach, Dine Newport Beach, Celebrate Newport Beach, Enterprise Newport Beach and Newport Beach TV. Additionally, Newport Beach & Co. includes the Newport Beach Foundation focused on creative charitable endeavors that support the business community.
MEDIA CONTACT
Jenny Wedge
Newport Beach & Company
949.706.5309
jenny@newportbeachandco.com
