Jacksonville Hospitality Market Report

Budgeting travelers shore up demand. Closing out 2023, local ADR was at least $28 lower than Florida’s other four major markets, representing the largest gap since at least 2000. This dynamic is positioning the metro to attract more tourists seeking budget-friendly opportunities to visit the state in 2024. Jacksonville is also within driving distance to major population hubs in Alabama and Georgia, offering travelers throughout the region the ability to avoid airfare costs. These trends underpinned the highest level of room demand since before 2000 along Jacksonville’s Beaches in 2023; also, the return of the NAS Jacksonville Air Show after a temporary pause could contribute to an even higher level of visitations this year. Additionally, Butler-Baymeadows and Jacksonville’s outlying suburbs each entered 2024 with local RevPAR at all-time highs, indicating that more inland locations are also seeing elevated room demand. While the metric in Downtown lags pre-pandemic norms, a number of quickly-growing events should help increase visitations to the area over time. The Jacksonville Jazz Festival and Jax River Jams, for example, have both been running for less than five years and posted record attendance at over 100,000 people combined in 2023.