By Economic Development Research Group for the Pew Charitable Trusts, 2007

EDR Group evaluated the health and vigor of two different travel segments to the Greater Philadelphia area - a five county region. In both examinations, historical trends of visits (conventions) were considered along with current trip profiles - visits from out of region, trip duration, travel party size, average daily spending.

As part of the study, EDR Group conducted research in the following areas:

• Benchmarking Greater Philadelphia as a culture & arts destination against Boston, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Chicago.
• Assessing Philadelphia as a convention destination within its relevant regional market and tier of convention facilities and testing the feasibility of the Convention & Visitor Bureau's growth projections supporting the case for expanding the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
• Applying an IMPLAN impact model to measure economic impacts from the culture-arts leisure travel segment and visits associated with the PA Convention Center, with and without expansion of the facility.

Read the report

Philadelphia Daily News Article, September 25, 2007