Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
^^^Precisely why I don't trust domestic visitation numbers. San Francisco receives 16-17 million visitors a year, mere fraction of most cities in the US. Anyone who has traveled would know that either the methodology is different, or this is just not correct. Likewise, there are NOT more tourists in Chicago than in New York unless a large chunk of tourists to Chicago are not in the city out and about and are staying with family/friends out in the burbs.
I don't go to Chicago and wonder "who ARE all these people always out and about shopping?!" like I do literally every time I am in Manhattan, wondering who ARE all these thousands and thousands of people just walking around leisurely shopping and enjoying the day, not working. New York has more tourism than any of the other "cities". Comparing to Greater LA would be difficult because tourism in LA/OC is so spread out between Disney, Hollywood, beaches, etc. But New York > Chicago on par with SF on par with DC I would think > Boston/Philly > Seattle. Just a hunch.
Considering they all calculate their visitors in basically the same way, I don't see the point in doubting it.
San Francisco includes hotel guests, those staying with friends and relatives, those staying in accommodations outside the city but whose primary destination was San Francisco, and regional visitors driving in for the day. Research | San Francisco, CA
I don't have the breakdown for Chicago's 2014 numbers, but the Crains link for the 2013 numbers has Chicago with 25.9 million overnight visitors in 2013 out of a total visitor count of 47 million. Chicago's overnighters are still higher than SF's general visitor count.
As for where they're staying and shopping, if you don't see the crush of tourists all over downtown then you're really not paying attention. They're all over Michigan Ave, State St, and over by Millennium and Grant Parks. Chicago's hotels have also been having record occupancy.
*These figures are as of 8/6/2015 and are subject to change at every moment*
Top 10 Most popular cities by instagram posts
#nyc 42,184,347 - New York City
#la 32,034,926 - Los Angeles
#Miami 24,881,300 - Miami
#Vegas - 18,414,693 - Las Vegas
#Chicago 18,213,055 - Chicago
#Sanfrancisco 9,033,074 - San Francisco
#atl - 7,731,975 - Atlanta
#Seattle 7,504,111 - Seattle
#Sandiego 7,176,661 - San Diego
#boston 7,119,386 - Boston
This was only using each cities' most popular tag that wasn't so ambiguous(An example would be using "Sea" for Seattle" when that can be used for anyone close to a sea). #DC had over 7 million instagram posts and would be top 10, but a lot of the posts were for DC comics, so I decided not to include it.
Any surprises?
Yeah the DC Comics stuff mixed in can be annoying as hell but the DC/DMV Instagram posts be some of the best out there. Go check out dc.iphoto, dctography, dc.corners, dc.alleys, acreativedc, explore_dc, dchumans, igdc, visitwashingtondc, tsgwashingtondc, thefridgedc, cultural_dc, wethepeopledc, dcphotographer, dcitystyle, etc. for a better taste of DC's Instagram feeds.
Yeah the DC Comics stuff mixed in can be annoying as hell but the DC/DMV Instagram posts be some of the best out there. Go check out dc.iphoto, dctography, dc.corners, dc.alleys, acreativedc, explore_dc, dchumans, igdc, visitwashingtondc, tsgwashingtondc, thefridgedc, cultural_dc, wethepeopledc, dcphotographer, dcitystyle, etc. for a better taste of DC's Instagram feeds.
Also forgot to add exposed_dc, washpostphoto, dhnedc, distriktdc, andradexcobain, dccitygirl, unionmarketdc, pierre_funes, northcapitoldc, 14thandu, trashingtondc, igersdc, igersdcmetro, thisisjamesj, nomadyard, streetmeetdc, franklinprudencio, iam_pedestrian, redeyeeasy, etc.
International tourists numbers are the best measurement for how big your city is in tourism. These numbers come from the government and not local chamber of commerce.
Top 15:
1) NYC: 9.741 million...2% increase from last year
2) Miami: 4.853 million....21% increase from last year
3) Los Angeles: 4.406 million....17% increase from last year
4) Orlando: 4.13 million....11% increase from last year
5) San Francisco: 3.132 million....3% increase from last year
6) Las Vegas: 2.994 million....5% increase from last year
7) Honolulu: 2.478 million....3% decrease from last year
8) Washington D.C.: 1.927 million....14% increase from last year
9) Boston: 1.411 million....10% increase from last year
10) Chicago: 1.308 million....5% decrease from last year
11) San Diego: 1.033 million....24% increase from last year
12) Houston: 860 thousand...7% increase from last year
13) Fort Lauderdale(NEW ADDITION): 792 thousand
14) Atlanta : 723 thousand.....25% increase from last year
15) Flagstaff/Grand Canyon/Sedona: 620 thousand....14% increase from last year
15) Philadelphia: 620 thousand....8% decrease from last year
The top 3 for overseas visitation matches well with the top 3 for instagram posts.
But international travelers aren't the only ones who post on Instagram. And for Miami, Vegas, Honolulu, and Orlando I'm pretty sure domestic travelers are very important to their economy, probably more so than international tourist, as those are vacation cities and people spend plenty of money in those places. I'm pretty sure they are for other cities as well, although to a lesser extent. Someone mentioned that Vegas had 40+ million visitors, but only the 3 million international tourists are important? I can imagine international tourists spending more money per person, but the sheer quantity of domestic tourists should trump that.
But international travelers aren't the only ones who post on Instagram. And for Miami, Vegas, Honolulu, and Orlando I'm pretty sure domestic travelers are very important to their economy, probably more so than international tourist, as those are vacation cities and people spend plenty of money in those places. I'm pretty sure they are for other cities as well, although to a lesser extent. Someone mentioned that Vegas had 40+ million visitors, but only the 3 million international tourists are important? I can imagine international tourists spending more money per person, but the sheer quantity of domestic tourists should trump that.
I think the point was that the US has a federal agency that tracks international visitation, so the methodology is uniform and fairly accurate. It's also pretty apples to apples with the methodology other cities/countries around the world use.
The methodology that individual cities use to track "visitors" or "tourists" (could be defined as completely different things) is so apples and oranges all the time that it becomes pointless. Is a visitor who drives in and stays with a friend in their apartment tracked? Is a person who stays 3 nights in a hotel on business considered a "tourist"? Is a person who stays 3 nights for whatever reason considered 3 visitors (like an unlinked transit trip tracked by APTA)?
Some of the tourist numbers cities post up are just not sounding real.
Yeah, it was more a response to this idea "nothing worth taking pictures of" in other cities. D.C. is covered with renowned monuments likely more pictured than several of the other cities that made the top 10.
Probably the same crowd who thinks that DC is just the National Mall. Sad.
Even I don't really care to take photos of things like the capitol building, Washington monument, Lincoln memorial etc. Washington DC is sort of an attraction land for really old, civics in love, people.
Philadelphia/Philly/Phila is probably 7-10+ million, maybe more.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
