New Year’s Eve in Nashville, 2017 set a record for direct visitor spending at $22.3 million, up an astonishing 29 percent from $17.2 million in 2016 – and higher than the previous record of $22.2 million in 2015, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp announced Tuesday.
The event, dubbed ‘Jack Daniel’s Music City Midnight: New Year’s Eve in Nashville’ also saw a record percentage of international visitors, and visitors stayed longer, contributing to the growth in visitor spending.
“The city’s New Year’s Eve event has developed a track record for being one of the best in the country, and now more international visitors than ever are celebrating here too,” said Beth Seigenthaler Courtney, chairman of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp and president of DVL Seigenthaler. “A great location at Bicentennial Mall and a superb lineup headlined by Keith Urban continues to be a winning combination. The tourism industry is a key economic driver for Nashville, and the success of this event generates enormous economic activity for the city and the business owners in Davidson County.”
Approximately 10 percent of attendees were international visitors. For the first time, Ontario, Canada was listed among the top ten feeder states/provinces, which also included Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, Alabama, Illinois, Ohio, California, Georgia and Virginia. As previously announced, approximately 100,000 attended the event.
Additional information about the 2017 event:
- 23,297 hotel rooms sold
- 82 percent of attendees were from out of town, up from 78 percent in 2016
- 3.5 nights was the average length of stay, up from 3 nights in 2016
- 64 percent were first-time visitors, up from 36 percent in 2016
- 14 percent stayed in home rentals, up from 8 percent in 2016
The New Year’s Eve event generated nearly $6 million in national and local advertising equivalency with 288 million national and local media impressions. Nashville was a featured location as part of CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.” The city was named the No. 1 destination in the USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice Top Ten Best Place to Ring in the New Year travel contest.
The concert event was free and open to the public and took place at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. The evening of festivities featured a Music Note Drop at midnight, a multi-genre concert lineup of Nashville-based talent and a 6 p.m. Nashville-time countdown to celebrate the New Year in the U.K. in support of the new British Airlines flight to London.
Joining the favorite Keith Urban on the lineup was CMA New Artist of the Year Maren Morris, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Cheap Trick, 2017 country music breakout artist Carly Pearce, R&B artist Jonny P, roots rockers Larkin Poe and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
