Ruoff Music Center 2024 features another outstanding season line-up, sports tournaments are on the books and spring/early summer family travel season begins soon. 

Plus, there’s this little thing called the Solar Eclipse in early April.

The U.S. Travel Association predicts 1.93 billion domestic person leisure trips in 2024, up almost 2% from last year. Leisure travel is expected to climb 4% over pre-pandemic levels. And Hamilton County’s future lodging demand paints a positive travel season ahead. 

Hamilton County hotel room demand is up almost 15% compared to previous record pre-pandemic levels. Although that room demand does not quite meet the 15.8% in new county hotel room supply open since 2019, that’s significantly higher than the national average for recovery, and something to celebrate. 

Spring and early Summer 2024 travel looks optimistic, according to data gathered by Hamilton County Tourism, Inc. That optimism is driven by early hotel room bookings for transient (non-group/non-sport) travel as of mid-March 2024:

• April hotel occupancy is up almost 50% versus same time last year, driven in part by a shift in Easter from April to March, and the April 8 solar eclipse.
• May and June hotel occupancy are currently up more than 25% when compared to same time last year.

Travel has become more segmented by interest. This year’s ad campaign Who You Are is Closer Than You Think focuses on travel motivators. These include experiences that drive people to travel such as outdoor adventure, arts and music, food and fun. This message will translate to all formats of marketing, including television. 

Hamilton County Tourism’s spring/summer promotions once again target Illinois for a layered marketing campaign of print/streaming/radio/television/digital. The state accounts for at least 10% of annual domestic trips here. A well-crafted digital and social media campaign help drive travel interest throughout Indiana and into surrounding states. Hoosiers know the county well and make up about one-third of overnight stays driven in part by special events and concerts.

Data-driven decisions help make successful return-on-investments of the lodging tax dollars granted to Hamilton County Tourism for use in destination marketing and management. The toolbox keeps getting new items added, and that makes for better forecasting!

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