Pontiac Tourism Sets New Visitor Record

Our thanks to Director of Pontiac, IL Tourism, Ellie Alexander for sharing the following press release with us. What a proud distinction for this Route 66 community (and our Museum, too)!

Ellie Alexander, Director of Pontiac Tourism, announced today that the number of visitors who came to Pontiac’s Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum in 2011 exceeded all expectations. “According to the records kept by the docents at the Route 66 museum, over 19,000 guests came through their doors this past year,” Alexander noted. “That represents a 40% increase over 2010.”

Alexander added that the busiest day of the year was the Saturday which marked the opening of the new Pontiac-Oakland Automobile Museum and Resource Center (July 23, 2011), with nearly 600 people stopping into the Route 66 Museum. The second busiest days were May 7 & 8, when the Red Carpet Corridor Festival took place. Records also indicate that among the international tourists, there were 57 countries represented. The United Kingdom was the most frequent home country among visitors, but following close behind were: Australia, France, Germany, Norway, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

Equally impressive are the numbers from the Pontiac-Oakland Automobile Museum which opened in late July of last year. According to Penny Dye, Assistant Director of the museum, they have had nearly 10,000 visitors come through their institution. Tim Dye, Director of the POAM, commented, “The first year is just the warm up for us. We expect to be visited by more car clubs and automobile fans in 2012. The best thing is that once people come to Pontiac to see one attraction, they quickly find out that there are more things to see and do than they expected.”