Not as Many Visitors, but They Spent More

Turns out 1996 was a good year for Orange County tourism, just not as good as industry experts had predicted.

The final tally from the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau reveals that 38.4 million people visited Orange County in 1996. That’s down nearly 1% from the record 38.7 million tourists who came in 1995 and is well off the 40.1-million visitor mark forecast by county officials in late December.

The good news is that even though fewer tourists came to the area last year, they pumped a record $5.4 billion into the local economy, up 5% from 1995. But even that number was less than the $5.5 billion predicted in the preliminary forecast.

The culprits? Day visitors. Nearly 20.7 million day trippers came to Orange County in 1996, about 570,000 fewer than in 1995.

Compared to overnight travelers who tend to plan well in advance and stick to their itineraries, day visitors are a mercurial bunch. Weather, competing attractions and a host of other factors can send day tripper volume plunging or soaring in any given month, according to Skip Hull, vice president of San Diego-based CIC Research, which compiles tourist numbers for the county.

Last year’s day visitor volume trailed 1995 for the first half of the year, then surged as nostalgic locals flocked to Disneyland to get one last glimpse of the Main Street Electrical Parade.

Researchers who gather the data thought that late momentum would carry through to the end of the year--thus the prediction of record visitor volume. But it wasn’t to be, Hull said.

“We had a late surge in visitors, then things just kind of fizzled in the last 45 days,” Hull said. “It rained, the parade went away and folks just decided they could do something else with their time.”

Fortunately for tourism-dependent merchants, big-spending out-of-towners picked up some of the slack and boosted spending to record levels.

About 17.7 million tourists spent the night in Orange County hotels, RV parks and private homes last year, which was 23,000 more than in 1995. Orange County innkeepers were the biggest beneficiaries, as 9.3 million visitors checked into area hotels, up a robust 4.3% from 1995.

Hull said the average overnight visitor spends $130 a day, or about three times more than the typical day tripper. The average per capita spending for all visitors to Orange County in 1996 was $51, which was $3 higher than in 1995.

Dollars, not head count, are what matter in the end. By that measure, 1996 was a roaring success, Hull said.

“The bottom line is spending,” he said. “Although Orange County attracted fewer visitors, they were quality visitors. It was still a very good year.”