Welcome to this year’s report on Pennsylvania tourism available exclusively online.

We strive every year to make Pennsylvania an exciting and fun place to visit. With a near-record hotel room demand, a bold marketing plan, and an expanded online presence, PA tourism thrived in 2008. Browse the links to the left to read about our remarkable achievements.

Here are some of the highlights:

Record Numbers
The hotel industry started off strong selling 12.8 million rooms—the highest first-half sales numbers ever. This demand boosted our average daily room rate to more than $100 for the first-time in a January-June period, while our revenue per available room was above $60.

Engaging Visitors
Our advertising campaign focused on traveler’s stories – those small and intimate moments that evoke what is best about traveling. We also re-launched visitPA.com where visitors can enjoy a richer experience by browsing visitor stories, exploring and customizing trips on an interactive map, uploading photos, or by submitting their own PA stories. The new and revamped visitPA.com was recognized with a 2008 Webby Award. We successfully entered the social media arena as well and were the #1 fastest growing travel destination on Twitter.

Turning a New Page
Our publications underwent a facelift. As a result, Pursuits magazine snagged 20,000 new subscribers and captured two gold Addy awards. The Pennsylvania Travel Guide has been reinvented and is now known as the Pennsylvania Pursuits Insiders Guide.

National Exposure
Through public relations efforts, we were featured in the New York Times, Newsday and The Washington Post. We also made our debut on the Martha Stewart Show, created our first-ever beer pairing media dinner in NYC, and won a silver Adrian Award for our promotion of the Frank Lloyd Wright experience.

Successful Partnerships
In the Office of Cultural and Heritage Tourism arena we assisted our partners in driving traffic to their attractions. We completed the final steps necessary to open our Civil War Trails roadtrip experience continued the “Picnics with a Past, “ expanded our partnership with the Appalachian Trails and National Geographic, and formed the PA Festival Alliance.

Across the Pond
Our international representatives helped to fuel a 27 percent increase in arrivals into Philadelphia. We also added China to the list of countries where we have sales and public relations representatives, joining the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

As we embark on 2009, we’re excited about the future of tourism in Pennsylvania even as we move through the current economic bumps in the road. We look forward to another year of working with our tourism partners to continue to put PA on everyone’s to-do list (and come back and do-it-again list).