More Accolades for Nashville

[markhollin]

Nashville ranked #11 out of Top 50 U.S. Cities for Start-Ups by Inc.'s 2020 Surge Cities Index. Nashville beat out a number of traditionally strong startup cities, such as Seattle, San Jose and Boston on the list, but couldn't surpass Austin, to which Nashville is often compared. 

Full report here:

https://www.inc.com/surge-cities

[MLBrumby]

The NFL Draft was a big eye-opener for folks outside the SEC territory. 

Nashville named Best Sports City by Street & Smith's... courtesy of Nashville Post.. https://www.nashvillepost.com/sports/commentary/article/21106836/forget-it-city-nashville-named-best-sports-city

https://www.titansonline.com/news/nashville-named-best-sports-city-by-sports-business-journal

[fishsticks176]

https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/most-changed-metros-of-the-2010s/

 

Nashville tops the list for the most changed metro of the decade.

[bigeasy]

I knew it was going to be a photo from the river...……

 

The article even mentions how our skyline has changed, yet they still show an extremely dated photo from a horrible angle.

Edited December 19, 2019 by bigeasy

[markhollin]

Nashville comes in #29 out of theTop 100 Cities to Spend Christmas by Walltehub.com:

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-places-for-christmas/41924/

[dReAmWiELdEr]

Nashville comes in #29 out of theTop 100 Cities to Spend Christmas by Walltehub.com:

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-places-for-christmas/41924/

I still don't get how Atlanta came in at number one... I understand the statistics, but something seems off.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[markhollin]

Metro Nashville (9 counties) home sales were up 7.7% for 2019 over 2018. Average home pice grew by 20% (269,900 to $324,000), average condo price grew by 38% ($222,000 to 308,000).

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/residential-real-estate/article/21108898/nashville-home-sales-enjoy-strong-2019

[markhollin]

The Country Music Hall of Fame set a new attendance record in 2019 at 1.3 million, up 8% over 2018's record of 1.2 million.  

More at The Tennessean here:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2020/01/08/country-music-hall-fame-announced-record-setting-year-visitors/2844633001/

[bigeasy]

20% in one year!?!?!

 

Good thing my yearly wage increase is keeping up with that.

[nashwatcher]

On 1/7/2020 at 2:02 PM, markhollin said:

Metro Nashville (9 counties) home sales were up 7.7% for 2019 over 2018. Average home pice grew by 20% (269,900 to $324,000), average condo price grew by 38% ($222,000 to 308,000).

More behind the Nashville Post paywall here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/residential-real-estate/article/21108898/nashville-home-sales-enjoy-strong-2019

The numbers here are off

single family grew from 308 to 324

condominiums grew from 222 to 269

[MidTenn1]

Does anyone know how tourism number are determined? I recently saw a post about one particular peer city bragging how their tourism numbers are so much higher than Nashville's. And this particular city (will not be named) has little, in my opinion, that would entice someone from some remote state to plan a visit with the kiddies to spend a weekend. And I know this city has next to nothing in the way of tour busses, museums, tourist attractions, etc.

Are the numbers based on hotel nights, attraction visits, airport transfers or what. Do they include sporting events and concerts? What about conventions (which in Nashville are not only held downtown, but in major hotels including Opryland). Does each city have its own particular method of determining these statistics?

It is puzzling how Nashville is not ranked higher on some of the lists I have seen. 

[nashmoney]

23 minutes ago, PHofKS said:

Does anyone know how tourism number are determined? I recently saw a post about one particular peer city bragging how their tourism numbers are so much higher than Nashville's. And this particular city (will not be named) has little, in my opinion, that would entice someone from some remote state to plan a visit with the kiddies to spend a weekend. And I know this city has next to nothing in the way of tour busses, museums, tourist attractions, etc.

Are the numbers based on hotel nights, attraction visits, airport transfers or what. Do they include sporting events and concerts? What about conventions (which in Nashville are not only held downtown, but in major hotels including Opryland). Does each city have its own particular method of determining these statistics?

It is puzzling how Nashville is not ranked higher on some of the lists I have seen. 

I was thinking the same thing and was going to ask the question, but didn't want to start a war with the posters (You have to tread lightly with some questions on here). My thinking is that is the methodology that is being used. Since they are a major airline hub, they may be counting business travelers/air transfers as visitors? I work in sales and cover the southeast so I am in that peer city at least once a quarter, and I never see the amount of tourist or foot traffic that I see in Nashville on a regular basis. I worked in downtown Nashville for 3 years and M-Sun, non stop people, tour buses, pedal taverns, etc starting as early as 10am. Plus with our NYE celebrations, SEC Tournaments, ST Jude marathon, Top 3 July 4th celebrations, CME Fest, Bonnaroo spillover, and convention business, we should definitely be ranked pretty high in tourism numbers.

Also, I noticed that even though our tourist numbers were reported lower, the direct visitor spending in Nashville was more, while their tourist numbers were almost twice ours. (Nash 15.8mm visitors - 7 billion spending / Other city - 28.2 mm visitors -7 billion spending).  Their numbers were regional MSA not sure if Nashvilles is MSA or just Davidson County. 

Definitely not starting an Us vs Them, but just wanted to know how the numbers were reported. Both are truly great cities and I enjoy visiting both!

Interesting visitor info in the link below.

https://www.visitmusiccity.com/research

[jmtunafish]

5 hours ago, PHofKS said:

Does anyone know how tourism number are determined? I recently saw a post about one particular peer city bragging how their tourism numbers are so much higher than Nashville's. And this particular city (will not be named) has little, in my opinion, that would entice someone from some remote state to plan a visit with the kiddies to spend a weekend. And I know this city has next to nothing in the way of tour busses, museums, tourist attractions, etc.

Are the numbers based on hotel nights, attraction visits, airport transfers or what. Do they include sporting events and concerts? What about conventions (which in Nashville are not only held downtown, but in major hotels including Opryland). Does each city have its own particular method of determining these statistics?

It is puzzling how Nashville is not ranked higher on some of the lists I have seen. 

I have been wondering this for a long time.  Lots of Nashville's peers claim to have more tourists even though Nashville has more hotel rooms and much higher hotel occupancy rates.  If you're referring to the same city I'm thinking about, I agree that there's no way it's got more tourists.  More business travelers, probably.  But more leisure tourists?  No way.  Or maybe they're counting everyone who shops at IKEA as a tourist.  (I'm still bitter that IKEA isn't coming to Nashville, by the way.)

[MLBrumby]

Tourism is something that's measured differently in each city. Some only use airport/tour bus data... while others actually scan out of state cars from highway overpasses. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Like just about everything they do, the Nashville entities (CVB here) were conservative in their estimates. I've been told that a city like Louisville, KY has something like 25 million tourists... but there's no way that's true by the same metric the Nashville CVB (15 million) uses. Some places count a tourist simply by the number of out of state credit cards that are swiped in their city. Nashville actually uses hotel data. 

[e-dub]

Is the city no one wants to mention Charlotte?

[BnaBreaker]

25 minutes ago, e-dub said:

Is the city no one wants to mention Charlotte?

If so with those numbers they'd have to be counting anyone on a business trip or that has a connecting flight I'd imagine, because a tourist mecca Charlotte is not (not a knock against it even... but it just isn't)... which is pretty silly if the case, because a tourist is someone who chooses to go to a place, on purpose, for recreation in their spare time.  

[titanhog]

Just off the top of my head, I would think Nashville would be a top 10 tourist destination in the U.S.

[donNdonelson2]

4 hours ago, titanhog said:

Just off the top of my head, I would think Nashville would be a top 10 tourist destination in the U.S.

My guess for top ten (no BNA) not necessarily in order

Orlando/Kissimmee (behold the power of the mouse)

NYC

San Francisco

Chicago

San Diego

Philadelphia

San Antonio

Honolulu

Washington, DC

Miami

[FluffyP13]

i would def throw LA and Las Vegas in there somewhere, over San Antonio and Philly 

[donNdonelson2]

10 minutes ago, FluffyP13 said:

i would def throw LA and Las Vegas in there somewhere, over San Antonio and Philly 

I would agree with that as an option and strong possibility (my list was thrown together pretty quickly) But San Antonio claims to have had 37 million visitors (combined business and leisure) in 2016 so they should be near top ten status.

Edited January 10, 2020 by donNdonelson2

[Bos2Nash]

Even with it's cold weather, I have to rep my hometown of Boston and would guess the tourist numbers are higher than at least San Antonio

[donNdonelson2]

2 minutes ago, Bos2Nash said:

Even with it's cold weather, I have to rep my hometown of Boston and would guess the tourist numbers are higher than at least San Antonio

I love Boston. My work took me there numerous times in the last twenty years. (Spent the entire summer of 2003 there.) Every time I go back it almost feels like going home. She’s a wicked good old town, indeed.

[nashvylle]

I would expect philly and San Antonio get a lot of field trips from middle and high schools just outside the city, and a few buses full of kids would count towards the tourism numbers

[donNdonelson2]

30 minutes ago, nashvylle said:

I would expect philly and San Antonio get a lot of field trips from middle and high schools just outside the city, and a few buses full of kids would count towards the tourism numbers

With Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, the Alamo, and the Riverwalk, plus the proximity to Hill Country, San Antonio is a big destination for Texans for vacations and weekend getaways! 

[jmtunafish]

2 hours ago, donNdonelson2 said:

With Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, the Alamo, and the Riverwalk, plus the proximity to Hill Country, San Antonio is a big destination for Texans for vacations and weekend getaways! 

That's still a sore subject for me and for many others.  Gaylord built Fiesta Texas which is still going strong, while Gaylord turned Nashville's Opryland into a crummy shopping mall.