Visitation and hotels revenue during the months of January, February and March have been the highest ever recorded for the destination, with March 2018 being the best month in the history of Jacksonville’s tourism industry.

Data collected by STR, a provider of information services to the hotel industry, of key Jacksonville tourism indicators for the first quarter of 2018 demonstrates the growth.

• Total Hotel Revenue collected from January, February and March 2018 is up more than $12 million from the first quarter of 2017.
• Hotel Average Daily Rate ADR (a measure linked to demand) has increased by $5 more than in the same period in 2017. The current average hotel rate in the county is $96.39.
• Hotel Occupancy is up about 3.5 percent. That is about 72,000 more rooms sold between January-March of 2018 compared to the same dates in 2017.

March is the best month ever recorded for the local hotel and tourism industry, beating all previous records in Jacksonville, including those set during Super Bowl XXXIX.

• March 2018 Occupancy: 82.2 percent of 18,000 rooms available nightly in the county. That is 2.4 percent more than in 2017 and even higher than February 2005 when the Super Bowl was in Jacksonville and occupancy level was 81.1 percent, the highest for the city until now.
• Total Hotel Revenue collected in March was $45.7 million, that’s 7.9 percent more than the same month in 2017. A record for Duval County.
• March 2018 saw the highest amount of Rooms Sold ever in the county. Over 462,000 in one single month.

March is now the 53-straight month of growth for Jacksonville’s key tourism indicators.