Hallmarks of Visit Philadelphia’s 2020 plan for drawing visitors to the Greater Philadelphia region include a partnership with the James Beard Foundation and revamped efforts aimed at women and Canadian travelers.
J. FUSCO FOR VISIT PHILADELPHIA

Visit Philadelphia’s new initiatives for 2020 include a high-profile partnership to further expand the city’s flourishing food scene and draw more visitors during the centennial of women being granted the right to vote.

Philly’s tourism and culinary industries will intertwine in a year’s worth of programming with the James Beard Foundation, which has previously bestowed national honors onto local chefs including Michael Solomonov and Jose Garces. A smattering of the city’s award-winning and up-and-coming chefs will take over New York’s James Beard House on Jan. 29-30, April 21 and June 20 alongside mixologists and media. On March 25, the 2020 announcement of James Beard Award nominees will take place at the Barnes Foundation in collaboration with the local Constellation Culinary Group.

The culinary arts nonprofit will host a pop-up dinner on April 14 at Center City’s Mediterranean restaurant Spice Finch. The event will feature the venue’s chefs Jennifer Carroll and Billy Riddle, along with James Beard Award-winning chef Vishwesh Bhatt of Snackbar in Oxford, Mississippi. August will usher in the James Beard Restaurant Collective, a new event series highlighting the talents of Philadelphia’s hospitality industry, coordinated by Center City District, the James Beard Foundation and local restaurateurs and chefs.

In tandem with the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, Visit Philadelphia will invigorate efforts to draw women travelers to the city, particularly those ages 40 to 70. To do so, the company is planning a year of programming around art, food, fitness, wine, music, and history. The marketing strategy includes social media, web content, advertising and public relations.

When the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920, Philadelphia was the largest city and Pennsylvania was the largest state in which women didn’t previously hold the right to vote, according to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Many woman activists in the region played a hand in getting the amendment passed.

Visit Philadelphia will kick off the “City of Sisterly Love” campaign by sending local street artist Amberella to New York City to create works meant to encourage people to visit Philadelphia. Amberella’s multimedia work has been featured at travel destinations like Philadelphia International Airport.

The tourism agency’s new initiatives come at a time where the travel industry in Philadelphia is booming. National Geographic dubbed the city one of the top in the world to visit in 2020. The nod came on the heels of a record 45 million people visiting the city and surrounding five-county region in 2018, invigorating the local economy with an estimated $7.6 billion as part of the ninth consecutive year of industry growth, according to data out of the city, Visit Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.

On top of growing the number of women travelers to the region, Visit Philadelphia aims to bolster the leisure tourism market by doubling down on efforts to draw visitors from Canada, Philadelphia’s largest international market. This will include events, partnerships, social media and advertising. Of the 1.22 million international visitors to Greater Philadelphia in 2019, nearly 500,000 came from Canada, the agency said. Philadelphia’s chief competitors for international tourists include New York, Chicago, Boston, Florida, Houston and the Caribbean.

To bump up tourism across the board, Visit Philadelphia is partnering with the Philadelphia International Airport to spread the word that domestic flights will require REAL ID-compliant identification beginning Oct. 1. The two will run social media and radio messaging during February and March to urge Greater Philadelphia residents to obtain new IDs. More than 90 million people across the country do not have a REAL ID driver’s license or acceptable alternative, like a U.S. passport, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

In efforts to position Philadelphia as a live entertainment destination this summer, drive hotel stays and evaluate how live music offerings impact leisure tourism, Visit Philadelphia is partnering with Live Nation and CID Entertainment, a local VIP ticket package and travel provider.

As the marketing partner, Visit Philadelphia will rep 265 events this summer at The Met Philadelphia, The Fillmore Philadelphia, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts and BB&T Pavilion. Live Nation is anticipated to sell more than three million event tickets between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Visit Philadelphia said.

Philadelphia will roll out a travel podcast on Leap Day highlighting the region’s diversity and culture. Hosted by radio personality Laiya St. Clair and Visit Philadelphia’s Rachel Ferguson and Justin Pizzi, the show will include interviews with diverse locals including:

  • Rashia Bell, the crystal healing expert at Four Seasons Philadelphia
  • Vashti DuBois, executive director and founder of the Colored Girls Museum
  • “Shark Tank” winner Patrice Banks, founder of woman-owned repair show Girls Auto Clinic
  • Musician Adam Blackstone, who has worked as a music director for artists including Rihanna, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake

While Philadelphia hotels broke revenue records in 2019, the industry isn’t loosening its grip heading into 2020. More than 1,800 new hotel rooms are expected to come online in the city this year at new locations including Canopy by Hilton, W and Element, River House at Odette’s in New Hope and extended-stay property Residence Inn by Marriott Philadelphia/Bala Cynwyd on the Main Line. The area will also welcome South Philly’s Live! Hotel & Casino and Washington Square West’s Guild House Hotel, a National Historic Landmark circa 1882 that once served as a hotel for unaccompanied working women visiting Philadelphia.