Malls are among the top tourist attractions in 10 states, including Illinois, Texas, Missouri, Virginia and Colorado, according to research done by McCormick Marketing, a Napa, Calif.-based retail consulting firm. People made 43 million visits to Mall of America last year, more than Disney World, the Grand Canyon and Graceland combined. In New York, Bloomingdale's says it is the third-largest tourist attraction after the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. In Branson, Mo., more visitors said shopping lured them to town than the live entertainment that made the rural city famous, said Jerry Adams, spokesman for Branson, which has three outlet centers to serve its 3,900 residents and the 5.8 million tourists who visited last year. This country is saturated with malls and outlet centers, and millions of people want to visit them, no matter where they are.
Shopping is the vacation.
With the vacation market booming, merchants across the nation want a piece of the action. Tourists spend four to 10 times more than local shoppers and rarely return what they buy, according to McCormick Marketing. The Taubman Co., one of the nation's largest mall managers and developers, runs its World Class Shopping program, giving discounts on hotels and airfares to many of the cities where its 27 shopping centers are located, including Sterling Heights, Mich., Stamford, Conn., Schaumburg, Ill., Phoenix and Miami. For instance, a visitor to Short Hills, N.J., can stay at the Hilton, where they also receive a totebag, a discount coupon book for The Mall at Short Hill, and free admission to the hotel spa where they can soak their weary bones after a long day lapping the mall. Also tapping the tourist market is Urban Retail Properties Co., which manages malls.