May 26, 2009

A day of solemnity… a weekend of spendingBy Megan WoolhouseBoston.com

Tourism officials said this Memorial Day weekend was brighter than expected, and not just because of the sunny weather.

The Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau predicted a 2 percent increase in out-of-town visitors and hotel bookings in the Boston area, but the number was closer to 6 percent, with 1.3 million more people visiting the Boston area than last year.

Patrick Moscaritolo, chief executive officer of the bureau, said the increase, calculated using preliminary hotel booking information and data from AAA, was probably because of greater numbers of people driving from New York to Greater Boston to watch sporting events. The weekend brought many New York Mets fans to Boston to see the three-game series at Fenway Park. Throngs also visited Foxborough to watch New York colleges and universities compete in the NCAA lacrosse championships at Gillette Stadium.

“I love New Yorkers, especially when they leave so much money behind,” Moscaritolo said yesterday.

Travelers also took advantage of Memorial Day gas prices that averaged about $2.26 a gallon in Massachusetts, according to AAA – $1.49 lower per gallon than they were a year ago. AAA has estimated that the low cost of gas would encourage more than 27 million Americans to take a vacation by car this year, an increase over last year’s 23.6 million. No official numbers were available for Memorial Day traffic in Boston or New England yesterday, but the region is expected to show the greatest increase in auto travel.

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