VFNHP Ranks Third Among Most Popular Attractions in Philly Region

Source: Montco.Today Lance Knickerbacker

New research conducted by the Philadelphia Business Journal has determined the most popular attractions in the Philadelphia region, based on 2015 visitation.

Among the Top 25 attractions, five are located Montgomery, Chester, or Delaware county.

The Valley Forge National Historical Park, the site of the Continental Army’s 1777-78 winter encampment during the American Revolution, checked in at No. 3 on the list. The park had 2,143,965 visitors in 2015.

Also in Montgomery County, Norristown’s Elmwood Park Zoo, which maintains a collection of over 100 species primarily indigenous to the Americas, ranked 10th on the list, attracting 500,000 people.

Kennett Square’s Longwood Gardens – one of the world’s great horticultural displays, encompassing 1,077 acres of dazzling gardens, woodlands, meadows, fountains, 10,010-pipe Aeolian organ, and 4.5-acre conservatory – was No. 5. Approximately 1.3 million people visited last year.

Renowned for its holdings of the Wyeth family of artists, the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford placed 24th on the list, luring 84,500 visitors in 2015.

Rounding out the list at No. 25 was Elverson’s Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, which showcases an early American industrial landscape from natural resource extraction to enlightened conservation. The site brought 51,252 visitors.

The Philadelphia Business Journal also noted that Memorial Day Weekend broke records for Center City hotels, according to Visit Philadelphia citing data from research and analytics firm STR and Travel Click 2016.

“Center City hotels were full this Memorial Day weekend with both Saturday and Sunday seeing the highest occupancies for those nights in at least a decade,” Visit Philadelphia said.

Hotel occupancy on Friday was at 82.8 percent, up five percent from last year, while Saturday was at 98 percent, up 1.4 percent, according to STR. Sunday this year had hotel occupancy of 93.4 percent, up 21.1 percent from last year, according to Travel Click 2016.

“Memorial Day weekend is the start of the summer tourism season, and what a great one it was for Philadelphia thanks to so many factors in Historic Philadelphia and beyond,” Visit Philadelphia President and CEO Meryl Levitz said. “It was also our first great weather weekend, and that always helps drive travel.”