Be Our Guest: Market Study Examines Who’s Visiting Midtown
The second in a new three-part series examining residential, worker and visitor demographic trends
Published: 03/05/20
Some of the hottest cultural events in the City of Atlanta in 2019 took place in Midtown, including Atlanta Pride Festival at Piedmont Park, Yayoi Kusama’s sold-out Infinity Mirrors exhibition at the High Museum and the Garden Lights, Holiday Nights display at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.
And the popularity of Midtown’s attractions with visitors showed in a late 2019 data-gathering study. Midtown Alliance worked with Bleakly Advisory Group to study the profile of people who spend time in Midtown’s core. Here are a few things we learned:
1. An estimated 7 million people visited Midtown in 2019, with the top destination being Piedmont Park (3.5 million visitors).
Other hotspots in Midtown included:
2. Midtown hotels hosted an estimated 1.5 million guest nights in 2019, generating $18 million in room revenue.
- The district has 4,300 hotel rooms, or about 4% of the 96,903 total hotel rooms in metro Atlanta.
- In June 2019, Midtown hotel rooms had a 73 percent occupancy rate, equal to the city’s overall occupancy rate.
- The average daily rate for a hotel room in July 2019 was $168, higher than the city’s overall average of $113.
3. If each of these visitors to Midtown’s hotels or attractions were estimated to spend an average of $10 on retail products or services during their visit, it would add up to $42 million in spending, enough to support approximately 100,000 square feet of retail space.
More hotels are rising in the district as a result of the high volume of visitors. The Hampton Inn & Suites Midtown opened just this year, a $52 million project with 196 guest rooms.
Hotels are also under development at 640 Peachtree Street, 1105 West Peachtree, 425 West Peachtree, and at 17th and Spring Streets as a component of Midtown Union.
There will be plenty for guests to do and see in Midtown in 2020. The beloved Broadway musical “Hamilton” is returning for a five-week run at The Fox Theatre, starting March 31. The High Museum is introducing “Heartmatch,” a Tinder-like app that matches visitors to their perfect artwork and gives them personalized museum itineraries. Fashionistas can see rotating exhibits from legendary designers Pierre Cardin, Azzedine Alaïa and Gilbert Adrian at SCAD FASH. And gourmets and oenophiles will be in their element at the 10th Annual Food & Wine Festival, which holds its classes at the Loews Atlanta Hotel.
Midtown Alliance’s market data has many practical uses that range from ground-floor retail recruitment to public policy strategies. Read more about Midtown’s market fundamentals on our Resource Center, featuring 80+ maps, reports and fact sheets about the district.
