PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- It was a record-setting year for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation's (GPTMC) web properties, with visitphilly.com and uwishunu.com welcoming 8.7 million visits—a 33% increase from 2011. Both sites, along with GPTMC's 16 ahead-of-the-curve social media properties, relied on timely content, vibrant photography, technical innovation and all of the company's integrated marketing muscle to attract and engage potential visitors. Here's a look at some 2012 news and numbers worth bragging about.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130115/PH42273 )

Visitphilly.com Is Tops:
1. Out of the 10 largest cities in the United States, Philadelphia has the most-visited destination
    website in visitphilly.com, ranking above powerhouse destinations such as New York, Chicago,
    Los Angeles and San Diego. (Source: Quantcast) 
2. Visitphilly.com garnered more than 21 million pageviews, and its 6.1 million visits marks a 
    35% increase from 2011. 
3. 75% of people polled on visitphilly.com said that their online visit improved their impression of
    the city. 
4. More than 1.5 million visits—26% of the site's traffic—came from phones and tablets.
5. The site is steadily building international traffic. In fact, people from 213 countries accounted
    for 513,000 visits. The top three countries driving traffic: Canada, United Kingdom and Germany.

New On Uwishunu.com:
6. Uwishunu.com garnered 6.3 million pageviews, and its 2.6 million visits mark a 27% increase
    from the previous year.
7. An astounding 94% of respondents to a uwishunu.com reader survey said they attended an
    attraction or an event featured on the site.
8. The blog made three innovative additions to the site, including:

• Events Calendar: This curated calendar of events—readers' top-requested innovation—is chock full of happenings searchable by day, location or theme.
• Seasonal Guides: These indispensable resources compile all existing seasonal content on one easy-to-browse page.
• Google Field Trip: Uwishunu.com serves as Google's local content partner for the new Field Trip app. Philadelphia is the first city Google approached to provide them with content for this location-based app that acts like a pocket guide to all of a city's hidden treasures.

Social Media Soars:
9.  GPTMC's presence on Facebook, Twitter, Foodspotting, Foursquare, Instagram and Pinterest 
     engaged 310,000 fans and followers in 2012, a 74% increase from 2011.
10. 48% of out-of-town social media followers said they have planned a trip to Philadelphia based
      on a post viewed on one of GPTMC's social media properties.
11. Visit Philly's dynamic Facebook content engaged users, who clicked, commented and liked
      more than 750,000 times in 2012.
12. Visit Philly's Twitter followers retweeted GPTMC content more than 41,000 times and replied
      to and mentioned it 18,000 times.

Coming to GPTMC's social media world in 2013: a Facebook promotion and Pinterest contest promoting the With Art Philadelphia™ campaign and encouraging visitors to curate their own Philadelphia art experiences, a social media promotion that encourages visitors to explore the city's neighborhoods a little more deeply than they normally would and partnerships with local sports teams to leverage their passionate fan bases.

The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and The Countryside^® a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases business and promotes the region's vitality.

For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit visitphilly.com or uwishunu.com, where you can build itineraries; search event calendars; see photos and videos; view interactive maps; sign up for newsletters; listen to HearPhilly, an online radio station about what to see and do in the region; book hotel reservations and more. Or, call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Historic Philadelphia, at
(800) 537-7676.

Tweet It: 12 stats that show why 2012 was a banner year for @VisitPhilly's web properties: http://vstphl.ly/13f4ZOV

SOURCE Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation