D.C. Tourism Surpasses Pre-9/11 Levels [Strong Economy]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Visitors to the nation's capital surpassed pre-Nine-Eleven levels last year -- and are expected to do the same this year.

The Washington, DC, Convention and Tourism Corporation reports more than 18 million people visited the city in 2004. That's a nine percent increase over 2003.

The corporation says 2005 shows signs of reaching tourism levels not seen since 1998. The group's president, Bill Hanbury, credits the increase to new attractions like the World War Two Memorial, National Museum of the American Indian and the Washington Convention Center.

Tourism in the Nation's Capital is now back to where it was during the peak in the late ninetees. People are travelling to Washington because they can afford it.

Consider:

- Unemployment at a very low 5%
- Low interest rates
- Low inflation
- Defecit cut by at least 25% since 2004
- U.S. tax revenues up
- Consumer spending/confidence is up
- Industrial production is booming
- 2.2 million jobs created in the last year

The President's management of our economy has been excellent.

A well-known DC newspaper publishes an article today on how difficult DC is to navigate for poor "out-of-towner" tourists. Message: keep out of DC, you dumbbell tourists, while the all-knowing wise newspaper simultaneously builds doubt around any good economic news; in fact, on any good news. /sarc

Luckily, most tourists are smart enough to read a map, and some of us even enjoy getting "lost" once in a while (we accidentally stumbled by the D.C. Navy Yard AND former Presidential Yacht U.S.S. Sequoia on our trip last year ; ) Seriously, it was no hassle for us renting a car at Dulles and finding our way into D.C. (it must have been pre-rush hour though) by the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and White House to our Congressional tour (we parked off a side street to the Supreme Court building which we also toured). Then the National Space museum and Smithsonian. We parked along some river (Potomic?) and walked to the Lincoln, Vietnam, and WWII Memorials (the Washington Monument was closed). Then we took a driving tour all around, by the Jefferson Memorial back up by the White House and into Georgetown by the National Cathedral and Embassy Row - we even saw the Vice-President's house - lots of new security, I will say. That was when we got "lost" and finally found a hotel to stay in (I think in Virginia). Next morning, we did Arlington National Cemetary and our White House tour - and easily found our way out of D.C. to Annapolis.

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