Industry experts say 2012 is shaping up to be Boston’s strongest year for tourism and convention business since 2007 – and has the potential to set all-time records.
Booming convention bookings, new direct flights from Tokyo to Boston, increased cruise ship passenger volume and the return of March Madness to the TD Garden are all expected to pack hotels and boost bottom lines of area businesses this year.
The rebound in tourism and business travel will make booking a reservation at area hotels the most difficult since 2007, according to the industry researchers at PKF Consulting.
“We have incredibly strong citywide demand coming in this year,” PKF vice president Andrea Foster said. “It’s going to be a banner year for Boston.”
The Greater Boston Convention and Visitors’ Bureau projects a total of 21.2 million visitors to the Boston area in 2012, up nearly 2.5 percent from last year. Spending by visitors is estimated to hit $14.4 billion, a 5.6-percent increase from 2011.
The economic impact would be the most significant since 2000, said Pat Moscaritolo, the bureau’s president and CEO. “That tells you how dramatically the visitor economy was impacted by the recession,” Moscaritolo said. “It’s taken us 12 years to get back to those high water marks.”
International tourism is a key growth market. The U.S. Department of Commerce predicts an estimated 1.5 million visitors from outside the U.S. will visit the region, topping the previous high of 1.3 million in 2000. Much of the business will come from Canada, which continues to benefit from a strong economy and favorable exchange rates, Moscaritolo said.
International passenger volume at Logan Airport is expected to rise 3.7 percent from January through mid-November, Massport spokesman Matthew Brelis said.
The airport’s only nonstop flights from Asia to Logan begin April 22, when Japan Airlines launches flights from Tokyo five days a week. The service will expand to daily flights on June 1.
The Boston route is Japan Airlines’ first overseas destination using its new Boeing 787 Dreamliner service. The airline anticipates that 70 percent of passengers will come from Japan and the rest will originate from connecting flights from Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore, Moscaritolo said.
Massport officials also predict a stronger cruise ship business in 2012, with 112 ship visits at the Black Falcon terminal in South Boston carrying nearly 350,000 passengers, a 13-percent increase from last year.
International visitors are prized by tourism officials because of their typically free-spending habits. The typical international convention delegates spends eight to 10 times as much as domestic counterparts, said James Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.