Despite a still-sluggish recovery from the Great Recession, Eastern Massachusetts experienced a second straight strong summer in attracting tourists.
According to PFK Consulting, which keeps track of hotel industry trends, occupancy rates at Greater Boston hotels topped 88 percent in June, before declining to 86 percent in July.
Average room rates hit $187 in July, a 14-percent increase from the previous year.
“Overall, 2012 is a very strong year,” PFK vice president Andrea Foster said.
Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Pat Moscaritolo said the number of visitors to the city between Memorial Day and Labor Day increased 12 percent from 2011, reflecting a mix of leisure and business travel.
Consumers have been willing to travel the last two years despite still-prevalent concerns about the economy, Moscaritolo said.
“It’s counter-intuitive. Where consumer confidence is usually where spending goes,” he said. “But families are saying, ‘We’ve passed (on traveling) the last few years, but this year we’re going to go.’”
Boston-area tourism may have been aided this summer by three one-time events: the NCAA lacrosse national championships at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on Memorial Day weekend, the arrival of the Tall Ships to Boston Harbor in late June and early July and the sailing of the U.S.S. Constitution in August.
Plymouth County Convention Visitors Bureau Executive Director Paul Cripps said the South Shore also experienced a strong summer for visitors. On the hotel front, 63.3 percent of the county’s hotel rooms were filled, marking a 2.3 percent increase from last summer. And room rates were up 8.6 percent.
This summer marked the third straight year of growing tourism numbers for Plymouth County following slower seasons during the economic doldrums of 2008 and 2009, Cripps said.
Cripps said the summer’s good weather partially accounted for the strong numbers. However, he said, the weather had less to do with attracting visitors to the region for vacations – most trips are planned in advance – as it did drawing day trippers to festivals and road races.
Cape Cod saw hotel occupancy in June increase 10 percent over 2011, and July held steady at 80 percent. June rates were up 17 percent, and July rates saw a 22 percent increase.
Wendy Northcross, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, said the June numbers were particularly striking. She attributed them to the mild New England winter. Without having to make up for snow days, families were able to delve into summer travel earlier than usual.
Northcross had not yet seen the August hotel numbers as of early September. However, she said, tourists seemed to be flocking to the Cape later in the 2012 season than in recent years – perhaps due to the lack of a major hurricane threat this year.
Both Cripps and Northcross said that like hotels, South Shore and Cape Cod restaurants experienced strong summers. But both region’s tourist shops were still lagging a bit behind. Cripps said retail shopping is the third priority for tourists, and the economy hasn’t rebounded enough to allow people to look that far down their vacation checklists.
“It’s the last horse in the race,” Cripps said. “People are making choices with their money. They’re going to need a place to stay, and they’re going to go out to eat.”
Plimoth Plantation has seen a 5 percent increase in visitors this year since opening in April, according to marketing director Rob Kluin. Kluin said the Plantation has increased its advertising and is using more social media this season.
Boston Harbor Cruises also reported an increase in revenue for the summer season. However, general manager Alison Nolan said, the data the company has collected so far indicates that fewer tourists were taking trips and that regional residents were taking more day trips using the company’s 12 services, which include whale watches, site-seeing tours and the Boston-to-Provincetown ferry.
Marianne Peak, the supervisor of the Adams National Historic Park in Quincy, said the number of visitors to the park is up this year. The park has given nearly 160,000 tours this year, she said, compared to about 138,000 at this point in 2011.
While the park has had a decrease in tour groups this year, Peak said, individual visitors are up sharply. The birthplace of the nation’s second president has seen increased popularity in recent years, Peak said, since HBO aired its “John Adams” miniseries in 2008.
Adam Vaccaro may be reached at avaccaro@ledger.com.