15 million people visited downtown Huntsville last year
HUNTSVILLE Ala.
August 2 2024
Events drew 15 million visitors to Huntsville’s downtown last year, according to data from the organization that serves as the host to many of the activities.
“That is a 3% year-over-year increase over 2022, and a 5.2% year-over-year increase from 2021.” Downtown Huntsville CEO Rob Buddo told the Huntsville City Council at a meeting in July.
Buddo said his organization relies on Placer AI, which is a tool that tracks foot traffic movements, to provide the numbers.
“Our mission is to create a vibrant, diverse and economically sustainable downtown,” he said.
When it comes to drawing people downtown, it’s mission accomplished, District 4 City Councilman Bill Kling said.
“I know we have momentum going downtown,” the councilman said. “I remember not too long ago, downtown was almost like a ghost town. We’d come out of our council meetings and basically downtown was deserted.”
According to Buddo, the busiest days downtown were Oct. 25 and Dec. 8.
He said the city hosted the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s state volleyball tournament at the Von Braun Center on Oct. 25. There were several holiday events downtown on Dec. 8, including a major one, Tinsel Trail at Big Spring Park.
Downtown Huntsville Inc. was involved in hosting both events.
Tinsel Trail accounted for more than 135,000 people across 35 nights last year, Buddo said, making it one of the largest events last year. That included 11,200 who attended the Black Friday market that kicked off the event.
“That was a 47% increase from 2022,” Buddo said.
The event included the lighting o f the 23-foot Rocket City Tree and was the largest free single event at Big Spring Park last year.
“We also launched Rocking Around the Rocket City, which was a partnership between DHI and the Art Museum to create synergy between Skating In the Park and Tinsel Trail,” Buddo said.
In addition to helping to host events like the state volleyball tournament and Tinsel Trail, Downtown Huntsville Inc had over six food truck rallies last year that averaged about 4,500 attendees per event.
“We had six art walks that provided 200 opportunities for local artists and makers to bring their product to market,” Buddo added. “Those averaged about 2,500 attendees per event. We had four Movies In the Park averaging 1,200 attendees per show.”
He said it was important to note that all of the vendors for the events have city of Huntsville business licenses, “which contributes to our tax base.”
“My mantra in my profession is that downtown is for everyone,” Buddo said. “If you look at the zip codes of where our visitors are coming from, you’ll see that is reflected here in Huntsville. The top six zip codes that frequent downtown, every council district is represented.”
The city of Madison is also represented, although some of those visitors may be from west Huntsville, District 5 City Councilman John Meredith said.
“I hear people talk all the time about putting all of this money into downtown and it should be going into the neighborhoods,” District 3 City Councilwoman Jennie Robinson said. “You just reminded us that downtown belongs to everybody. We come here to do business at the courts, or to get licenses, or do business with the city or with the county. But then we also come here to play, to come here to eat. We come here to see the shows.”
The city contributes about a fifth of Downtown Huntsville Inc.’s $500,000 annual budget, Buddo said. The rest of the budget comes through membership dues, sponsorships and grants, he said.
Downtown Huntsville Inc. does more than host events with partners.
Buddo told the council the organization works as development consultants.
“We work with developers by providing them with data and studies and report and track projects that you are seeing downtown,” he said. “We also do a lot of downtown advocacy and public policy. We are a liaison between downtown stakeholders and city departments and HPD. We also work to ensure downtown remains the best place for stakeholders to live, work and play.”
Al.com
