Kindly allow me to repeat a prelude that appeared in this space just two months ago.
According to Louisville’s tourism authority, 2023 was a record-breaking year for visitors to the city.
At the start of 2023, Bourbon City kicked off the year on a high note with The New York Times naming the city as one of the ‘52 Places To Go in 2023,’ further fueling Louisville Tourism’s prediction of growth versus recovery. Bourbon City made news again when Travel + Leisure reported the city as the number one U.S. summer travel destination on the Airbnb platform, followed by the Human Rights Campaign also awarding Louisville a perfect score for 2023, continuing the city’s nine-year streak.
Several of Louisville’s tourism-centric agencies also saw exponential growth in 2023, breaking previous visitation records. Depending on the source, all these visitors might have numbered anywhere between 16 and 19 million.
They must sleep somewhere, hence the hotel construction boom during recent years: The Grady, Moxy, Myriad, Hotel Distil, Hotel Genevieve, The Bellwether and Tempo by Hilton off the top of my head, generally located in or near the urban core, precisely where exurban denizens of social media seem terrified to travel.
It can be such a strange, defeatist vibe hereabouts. Tourists...Read more
