Consumption Tax Revenue Hits Record, Visitor Spending Up In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria businesses and city officials received an optimistic outlook for visitor-related spending and tax revenue in the city.

At Visit Alexandria's annual meeting on Tuesday, president and CEO Patricia Washington reported record consumption tax revenue, reflecting sales, meals and lodging taxes, in fiscal year 2023. The $81 million in tax revenue surpassed the previous record of $76 million in the previous fiscal year and is above pre-pandemic levels.

Sales tax revenues have seen consistent increases in recent years, even during the pandemic. Lodging tax revenues fell during the pandemic in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 but recovered to nearly pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and 2023. Meals tax revenues fell in fiscal year 2020 but increased in 2021 and surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and 2023. According to Visit Alexandria and city officials, tax revenues from visitors help support the City of Alexandria's core services, such as transportation, police, fire and education.

Overall, estimated spending by long-distance visitors to Alexandria (from 50 or more miles away) totaled $801 million in calendar year 2022, up from $613 million in 2021.

The new data on the economic impact of visitors came as Visit Alexandria achieved another high-profile travel ranking for the city. Condé Nast Traveler named Alexandria the third-best small city as part of its 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards. Alexandria also had high rankings on lists from Travel + Leisure, Money magazine and Fortune in 2023. Among other cities ranked as top destinations, Alexandria was on the lower end of tourism budgets with $4.5 million. By comparison, Charleston, South Carolina has a $24.3 million tourism budget, Santa Fe, New Mexico has a $9.8 million budget and Savannah, Georgia has a $16.9 million budget.

In the last fiscal year, Visit Alexandria had unveiled its first major rebranding since 2013, launched a "Best Kept Shh!" tourism advertising campaign and highlighted Alexandria neighborhoods in its Expand Your ALX campaign.

In the new fiscal year, Visit Alexandria will work on expanding video content to meet demand for short, vertical videos, including an Old Town video itinerary and second phase of the "Expand Your ALX" neighborhood campaign. Other initiatives include working on diversity and outreach initiatives, launching an "Alexandria Accolades: The Secret’s Out!" advertising campaign, increasing outreach to Spanish-language media and trade media, and continuing to boost Alexandria as a destination for business meetings. On the events side, Visit Alexandria will continue to produce the Holiday Boat Parade of Lights and Scottish Christmas Walk Parade on the same weekend and other events like the Portside in Old Town Summer Festival, Alexandria Restaurant Week and more.