A Look Back at October 2026: Letter from the Executive Director

Hello, Salem!

With another Haunted Happenings season behind us, we’ve had a chance to look at the visitation data and reflect on a remarkable October in Salem, made even more special by the city’s 400th anniversary.

According to Placer.ai, Salem welcomed 1,592,896 unique out-of-market visitors in October 2026, an increase of 11.9% over October 2025. That’s nearly 170,000 more visitors than last year.

October by the Numbers

Visitors: 1,592,896, up 11.9% from 2025
Visits: 2,878,493, up 10.2% from 2025

There is some important calendar context to this year’s growth. October 2026 had five Saturdays, compared with four in 2025, and Halloween itself moved from Friday to Saturday. Both are meaningful advantages for a destination where weekend visitation is particularly strong.

Note: In this data, a “visitor” represents a unique individual, while a “visit” represents a day on which that person visited Salem. One visitor can generate multiple visits if they came to Salem on multiple days.

Five Years of Halloween

Halloween itself offers another interesting perspective. Looking back five years, we can see how Halloween visitation has changed, with the day of the week providing important context for those differences.

Halloween by the Numbers

2022 (Monday): 101,083 visitors and visits, down 36.5% from 2021
2023 (Tuesday): 101,276 visitors and visits, up 0.2% from 2022
2024 (Thursday): 122,741 visitors and visits, up 21.2% from 2023
2025 (Friday): 141,024 visitors and visits, up 14.9% from 2024
2026 (Saturday): 195,827 visitors and visits, up 38.9% from 2025
Five-year growth (2022–2026): +93.7%

For an even longer perspective, Halloween 2019, which fell on a Thursday, welcomed 80,708 out-of-market visitors. That’s an increase of 142.6% between 2019 and 2026.

These comparisons demonstrate both the tremendous scale of Halloween visitation and the importance of understanding where the holiday falls on the calendar. A Monday Halloween and a Saturday Halloween are very different experiences.

What About Septober?

We also wanted to look beyond October alone. In Salem, the fall tourism season increasingly feels like a two-month experience, which is why we’ve been looking at September and October together. Or, as we like to call it, Septober.

Septober by the Numbers

Septober
Visitors: 2,160,177, up 9.3% from 2025
Visits: 4,693,259, up 5.0% from 2025

September
Visitors: 788,348, down 0.2% from 2025
Visits: 1,814,766, down 2.3% from 2025

September was essentially flat compared with 2025, while October experienced substantial growth. Across the full two-month period, Salem welcomed 2,160,177 unique out-of-market visitors, an increase of 9.3%.

Importantly, Septober’s visitor count represents unique individuals across the entire two-month period, rather than adding September and October together and potentially counting returning visitors twice.

A Safe and Successful Celebration

Welcoming large numbers of people into a small, historic city requires an extraordinary amount of planning, coordination, and work by our public safety teams, municipal departments, businesses, and community partners.

We’re tremendously grateful to everyone who helped make this season possible, particularly the people working behind the scenes to keep Salem safe, welcoming, and operating throughout October.

2026 Isn’t Over Yet!

So far this year, from January through October 2026, Salem welcomed 4,404,582 unique out-of-market visitors, an increase of 4.3% over the same period in 2025. During that same period, Salem recorded 17,375,682 out-of-market visits. Holy cannoli! That’s a lot of visits. 

With local businesses and community partners continuing to invest in Holiday Happenings and seasonal programming, we’re hopeful that we’ll see increased visitation in November and December, too.

But Don’t Forget …

Destination Salem shares these numbers to better understand visitation trends, not because we believe every year needs to break a record. Our goal is tourism that supports Salem’s local economy, benefits our businesses, and respects the quality of life of the people who call Salem home. 

Salem’s appeal is extraordinary, but so is the work required to welcome the world into a city of approximately 45,000 residents. Thank you to the residents, businesses, city employees, public safety personnel, and community partners who make it possible.

Warm regards,

Executive Director
Destination Salem

Source: Placer.ai. Destination Salem previously measured visitation within a defined downtown study area. This report uses the full Salem ZIP code (01970), which may result in higher figures than those published in previous years. All year-over-year comparisons use the same geographic boundaries.