The Visitor Center is adding new locations and pop-ups at PHL, Reading Terminal Market, and the Parkway
The aim is to cater to the large influx of tourists through the World Cup, MLB All-Star Game, and America 250 events, but also raise the city's status as a tourist destination well beyond this summer.
Big things are happening in Philadelphia this summer.
With the FIFA World Cup, MLB All-Star Game, and the nation’s 250th birthday celebration expected to draw millions of tourists this summer, the Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation is gearing up to offer an even warmer welcome to tourists.
The visitor center’s nearly $600,000 expansion includes new locations at the Philadelphia International Airport and Reading Terminal Market, plus two pop-up resource tents along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
“For visitors, we want them to see a visitor center for every five to seven minutes on their walk from the Historic District to the Parkway,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of the Visitor Center.
The PHL outpost will be located at the airport’s Terminal A West, dedicated to international and trans-Atlantic travelers. A former MAC Cosmetics retail space will be temporarily transformed into a 1,000-square-foot visitor center, complete with maps, attraction tickets, itinerary planners, and Commonwealth-branded souvenirs and merchandise. Incoming and departing visitors will also be able to send postcards with images from notable Pennsylvania sites.
The Reading Terminal visitor center will be stationed near the entrance at 12th and Filbert Streets, at the site of a now-closed Visitor Center.
The new one, Lovell said, will be larger and have dedicated staff overseeing the resource station, rather than volunteers who formerly manned the kiosk. The hope, she said, is to make it a permanent resource for visitors.
The two visitor centers are currently under construction. Lovell said the plan is to open at least one by June 15, and then have both fully operational within the next two weeks.
The PHL Visitor Center will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the Reading Terminal Market location will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The organization is also adding an air-conditioned Visitor Center tent at LOVE Park, and another across from the Oval at the end of the Parkway. These tents will be filled with souvenir and retails items, flash tickets, transportation information, and other offerings. There will also be a water station and public restroom trailers that will be open to all visitors.
Starting Thursday, the resource tents will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. throughout the 39 days of the FIFA Fan Festival Philadelphia, ending July 19.
Along with paid Visitor Center staff, the nonprofit will position hundreds of volunteer greeters at these new Visitor Center locations. The bulk of these volunteers have already signed on as Phambassadors, the program who’ll act as the city’s ambassadors and connect visitors to the city’s many attractions. It has already recruited more than 10,000 members.
Volunteers will include 26 high school students from Saints Neumann Goretti High School and the Girard Academic Music Program. These students are a part of the newly-launched Youth Phambassador Program, designed in partnership with Temple University’s Lenfest Center for Community and Workforce Partnerships. It is aimed at training aspiring hospitality professionals on customer service, visitor engagement, and civic leadership.
The volunteers will be tasked with providing directions, offering recommendations, and other on-the-ground assistance throughout their six-week, paid summer work experience.
Lovell said the cost to build out and operate the two visitor centers for six months will total an estimated $400,000. The tents will cost roughly $200,000 to operate for six weeks.
This investment, she said, is made possible through fundraising and additional support from funders such as Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial, Visit PA, and the Connelly Foundation.
The expansion, Lovell hopes, will not only raise the profile of the city as a global tourism destination for 2026, but for many years beyond this summer.
“This is our Super Bowl,” Lovell said. “We’re the Visitor Center. We’re the welcome wagon. We’re the ones that help connect visitors to their amazing experiences throughout our city.”
