100 Reasons Why Tourism Matters to Mobile

There's no denying that tourism matters in Mobile! Tourism brings cash to our communities, creates jobs, enhances the local economy and improves the quality of life for residents. At the same time, travel and tourism heightens cultural awareness, help create a sense of place for a community and can provide shared experiences to connect friends and families across generations.

We've compiled a list of 100 stats and fun facts about why tourism matters to Mobile and why visitors choose our city for their travel destination:

• Mobile is home to 5 historic home museums that are open to the public for tours

• Mobile is named one of the "top 10 Golf value destinations in America"

• Visit Mobile has served at the pleasure of 4 Mayors (Arthur Outlaw, Mike Dow, Sam Jones, and Sandy Stimpson), numerous city council members, and the great citizens of Mobile

• There are 5 Major Pillars to tourism in Mobile: Culinary, Arts & Culture, History, Eco/Outdoors, and Mardi Gras

• Nicknamed the Azalea City for it's amazing annual displays, the flowers first came to the city from France in 1754

• Visit Mobile markets the area as a destination for conventions, meetings and millions of leisure travelers

• The Malaga Inn, located in downtown Mobile, is one of Alabama's haunted hotels

• The Visit Mobile team is comprised of 14 members that focus on both sales and marketing to attract visitors

• Mobile an average temperature of 72 degrees, and we boast 220 sunny days per year

• Mobile is the 9th largest port in the United States and the 12th busiest. We’re also a home port to the Carnival Cruise Lines Ship, Carnival Sensation

• Since 2009 Mobile has celebrated the New Year with a street party, live music, fireworks, a second line, and the world-famous Moon Pie Drop

• Throughout its history, the Senior Bowl has produced over 55 players that went on to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

• On average, visitors spend $200 per day while in Mobile

• The Mobile Ballet is home to the state's first Black principal ballerina, Victoria Blakely

• 8 seconds: the perfect amount of time to microwave a moon pie (it will taste like soft, marshmallow HEAVEN!)

• Visit Mobile was incorporated as the Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Corporation in 1989

• Each year, 75,000 visitors attend the world’s largest fishing tournament in the world, the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo

• Mobile is home to five MLB Hall of Famers, the most next to New York and Los Angeles

• National Geographic has named Mobile one of the best places to live in the U.S., citing it as one of the "The Next Great Adventure Towns"

• Visit Mobile is a 501(c)(6) non-profit that works with over 400 local partners to promote restaurants, attractions, hotels and more

• 480,000 visitors visit the USS ALABAMA annually

• The city hosts more than 365 events in a typical year: that's one event for every day of the year

• The Battle House, a Historic Hotel of America, has its own resident Historian. Want to know the legends and lore of the hotel, go visit Mr. George

• Mobile is the only city in the state of Alabama with a Tourism Improvement District

• The average spend from visitors in Mobile is over $1 billion each year

• On average, over 350,000 people fly through the Mobile Regional Airport each year

• Mobile is home to a thriving LGBTQIA+ nightlife, including the only lesbian bar in the state

• In 1980 Order of Osiris, the first gay Mardi Gras society in Mobile, held its first ball

• The Mobile Symphony is South Alabama's leading and largest performing arts organization with a roster of over 75 professional musicians

• Bellingrath Gardens boasts sixty-five acres of year-round blooms

• Soon, you will be able to experience the story of The Clotilda survivors and their descendants through the Africatown Experience

• With over 25 stops along the self-guided Oyster Trail, visitors will explore a variety of locations across Mobile to learn more about how oysters affect our ecosystem and economy

• Mobile's Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception which opened in 1850 (after 15 years of construction) is home to the finest collection of stained glass in the nation

• Red fire ants were first introduced in the U.S. through the Port of Mobile in the 1930s

• Currently there are 620+ former Senior Bowl players on active NFL rosters; that's 37% of the entire NFL

• Mobile's newest hands-on learning center, Flight Works Alabama, has over 40+ exhibits

• 41% of measured tourism revenue is spent at local shops

• Chefs are making Mobile a top-rated food city and the prestigious James Beard Awards have taken notice

• The RSA tower in downtown Mobile is the tallest building in the State of Alabama

• Mobile's ArtGo!, an outdoor walkable art gallery, has 33 pieces of art

• Toomey's Mardi Gras is a 70,000-square-foot warehouse filled with all kinds of Carnival décor, costumes, and throws

• Mobile's oldest restaurant, still operating today, is the Dew Drop Inn

• Mobile is home to “America’s Amazon” one of the largest wetland ecosystems in the world

• Bob Dylan, Cher, Dolly Parton, Robert Palmer, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Jerry Reed have all sung about Mobile in song. Come see what they are singing about

• 12% of measured tourism revenue is spent at local gas stations

• We're home to the second largest river delta and wetland in the whole country

• Mobile is a history buffs dream with over 100 locations on the National Register of Historic places

• Mobile has over 6,000 hotel rooms with 1,400 downtown alone

• We're home to more than 40 different Mardi Gras parades

• In 2020, over 97,000 future room nights were booked for meetings and conventions

• Locals and visitors can enjoy over 20 different types of guided and self-guided tours; including ones that you didn't go on in 4th grade

• Downtown Mobile has 3 Entertainment Districts created to maximize the celebration for events and weekend festivities throughout the year 

• In 2020, the USS ALABAMA welcomed 963 international visitors

• In 1860 the Clotilda, the last known ship to illegally smuggle African captives into the United States, sailed into Mobile

• Mobile has more than 378 golf course holes visitors can play

• The LoCo District of downtown Mobile is home to a variety of LGBTQIA+ locally owned businesses 

• The Average Daily Rate for a hotel stay is $83.74 (pre pandemic)

• Mobile has over 3 MILLION visitors annually

• The Mobile Museum of Art is the largest such museum between Tampa and New Orleans

• There are more than 145,000 followers across Visit Mobile's social media channels

• It's beautiful here year-round, with an average overall temperature of 72 degrees

• Alabama's largest synchronized light show with over 1 million lights takes place at Hank Aaron Stadium

• Mobile and Dauphin Island are incredibly pet-friendly

• Visit Mobile is tasked with attracting visitors to Mobile

• Cruisers book nearly 35,000 room nights equaling an estimated lodging revenue of $4.5 million annually

• Premiering in 1927, the Mobile Azalea Trail and maids were so popular, girls from across the South wanted to participate. Trail sponsors decided to limit maid competition to young Mobile ladies, only. They were dubbed Azalea Trail Maids. Another contest was started for non-Mobilians in 1958 – America’s Junior Miss scholarship program

• Mobile is the rainiest city in America, over Seattle, with more than 5 feet of rain annually

• You could spend 120 days in Mobile and never dine at the same restaurant twice (although you may want to!)

• GulfQuest is the first museum in the world dedicated to the Gulf Coast’s rich maritime traditions – and one of only two interactive maritime museums in the U.S.

• Beers & Geers brings over 500 Out of Town cyclists to the city annually

• The city is older than our state. We've been around for more than three centuries

• You can find more than 300 species of birds here in Mobile

• Visit Mobile's primary role is to invite visitors to learn more about our great city

• Bellingrath Gardens annual Cascading Chrysanthemums display is the nation’s largest outdoor cascading chrysanthemums show

• 3 of the 26 golf courses that make up the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail are in Mobile

• Did you know: Mobile is the original home of the West Indies Salad. Visitors travel near and far to experience this Gulf Coast delicacy

• Did you know that our sister city is Havana, Cuba. We have statues facing each other

• The History Museum of Mobile has 300 years of Mobile area history

• Mobile is home to seven National Register Historic Districts

• On average, Bellingrath Gardens and Home see 120,000 visitors per year

• Mobile has 18,000 workers in the Hospitality & Tourism Industry

• 18% of measured tourism revenue is spent in local grocery stores

• We have four distinctive nicknames -- The Port City, Azalea City, The City of Six Flags and the Gateway to the Gulf

• Saegner Theater not only brings headliners, but 140,000 visitors annually

• There are more than 40 stops on the Dora Franklin Finley African American heritage trail

• Mobile is home to three breweries - Iron Hand Brewery, Braided River Brewery, Old Majestic Brewery

• 18% of measured tourism revenue is spent at local restaurants 

• Did you know: Mobile's regional airport will soon call Downtown Mobile home allowing easier access for both locals and visitors

• Mobile drops the world's only 600lb electric Moon Pie every year for New Year's Eve

• Over 96,000 visitors attended Magic Christmas in Lights in 2020

• Mobile has over 50 public parks

• Mobile Tennis Center, the world's largest of its kind, hosts over 96,000 visitors each year

• On average, over 2,000 people enjoy LoDA ArtWalk on the second Friday of each month

• On average, 200,000 visitors sail out of the Port of Mobile abord the Carnival Sensation each year

• Visit Mobile runs a Welcome Center for visitors at the History Museum of Mobile. Each year nearly 50/week people come through to learn more about the amazing city they are visiting

• Mardi Gras originated in our Port City in 1703, making Mobile the birthplace of America's very first Mardi Gras

• Mobile has 2 parallel Mardi Gras organizations, Mobile Carnival Association (1872) and Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association (1939)

• In the first half of 2021, Mobile had over 900,000 visitors - 55% of them were Day-Trippers

• The average visitor spends $23 per transaction on food and beverage

• In the first half of 2021, Mobile’s 405,000 visitors who stayed overnight traveled an average of 268 miles and stayed 2.3 nights