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Busy Bike Week 2023 sees pre-pandemic crowds

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Bike Week is officially over in Daytona Beach.

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The 10-day annual event that packs Main Street officially wrapped up on Sunday.

This year marked one of the biggest Bike Week events since even before the pandemic. The city’s Chamber of Commerce said crowds were as big as 400,000 people this year.

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Janet Kersey, president and COO of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, said this year there were several more planned events, spanning across other parts of Central Florida.

That helped build momentum and brought even more people to the area, Kersey said.

“We even saw international visitors this year -- we had a strong showing from Canada but we also saw folks from Europe and Russia, Brazil,” she said. “People are starting to come back and travel.”

READ: Daytona Beach revs up for Bike Week

It’s too soon to tell if this year’s enhanced safety efforts were more successful than the last. We do know there were several reported crashes this year, and a handful of those were fatal.

At last check, Daytona Beach police said four bikes had been reported stolen compared to 20 total thefts last year.

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Adam Poulisse, WFTV.com

Adam Poulisse joined WFTV in November 2019.

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