With the new destination website AmericanaWeek.com reporting more than 5,000 visits during Americana Week, strong gates at participating antiques shows reflect the site's traffic, informed sources state.

Antiques shows advertising on AmericanaWeek.com include Stella Mgmt. Co’s Americana and Antiques @ the Pier and Antiques at the Armory and the Caskey-Lees New York Ceramics Fair.

According to a press release, the New York Ceramics Fair experienced an 18 percent increase in preview guests followed by a 25 percent jump in the number of show visitors on opening day.  With an unexpected snow storm and frigid temperatures making it difficult for show goers, the NY Ceramics Fair hosted more than 4,000 visitors overall. Dealers at the show reported strong sales on the upper end of the market.

A representative of Stella Mgmt. Co. said on Sunday, January 22, the final day of Americana and Antiques @ the Pier and Antiques at the Armory that the number of combo tickets sold had doubled in number from last year.

Putting the figures into perspective, Eric Miller, co-founder of Antiques Weeks Media, LLC, the parent company of AmericanaWeek.com and such other antiques weeks destination sites as NashvilleAntiquesWeek.com, AsiaWeekNYC.com and PhiladelphiaAntiquesWeek.com, said site traffic was highest on the planning pages.

“AmericanaWeek.com’s most popular pages were Shows and Events (essentially a calendar). The Auction page, a truncated listing of the week’s major sales, and the Dealer page received the next highest ranking in traffic.”

The popularity of those pages, he continued, may have affected the strong turn out at the Metro Show and others, as well. Miller stated the highest percentage of AmericanaWeek.com visitors came from New York, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

A sampling of dealers at the participating AmericanaWeek.com shows reported high-level sales.

In conclusion, Miller stated that the numbers bear out the thesis that the industry overall benefits from higher visibility and interest when its wide variety of events are catalogued under one easy-to-access website.  Such is the mission of AmericanaWeek.com and the traffic reports support the thesis of the start-ups.

“We hope to have equally as good stats to deliver on Nashville AntiquesWeek.com, AsiaWeekNYC.com and PhiladelphiaAntiquesWeek.com,” Miller said.