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The Knowland Group has released a survey: “Jimmy Buffett Benefit Concert Paradise for Hoteliers and Tourists”

The Knowland Group™, the world’s largest data firm in the global meetings and conventions industry, today released a survey on the effects of the Jimmy Buffett Gulf Coast Benefit Concert on the local hospitality industry. The survey, conducted two weeks after the concert was completed, found many hotels within 75 miles of Gulf Shores, AL were booked, but future reservations failed to materialize.

Specifically, of the hotels surveyed, 49% reported that more than half of their guests who stayed at their hotel attended the concert. In addition, 45% of responding hotels stated that less than half of their guests attended the concert. Of those concert attendees, 41% stayed one night and 53% stayed two nights; making up for the evaporation of the usual weekend vacationers following the oil spill.

“I saw people in line at the bars and the souvenir shops,” stated an Orange Beach, AL hotelier. “This concert was the greatest thing we [sic] ever had in our area.”

The increase in room bookings was welcomed by the surveyed hoteliers, with 89% claiming the event was very helpful to their business and 11% stating it was somewhat helpful. None of the survey’s respondents stated that the concert had any ill effect.

“I even had a waiting list for my hotel and I can’t remember the last time that happened,” noted one Gulf Shores hotelier.

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