Columbus tourism generated $6.4B - but there is room to grow

Nearly 40 million people visited Central Ohio last year and spent $6.4 billion, both measures up from past years, according to an annual report released byExperience Columbus.

The city's destination marketing organization recapped a strong 2015 in compiling research from Oxford Economics and Longwoods International, with CEO Brian Ross touting tourism as 'a big part of greater Columbus' economy,' while also lamenting one shortfall in becoming a stronger market for conventions, meetings and sporting events.

Key takeaways from the report:

  • 39.3 million: day and overnight visitors, up 4 percent from 2014.
  • $6.4 billion: visitor spending, up 12 percent from 2013 (calculated every other year).
  • 75,000: jobs supported in Columbus and Franklin County, up 5 percent from 2014.

Columbus' tourism and hospitality industry got a boost in 2015 from the National Hockey League's All-Star festivities, Ross said. The Southern Baptist Convention also helped with thousands attending its national meeting, Ross said, and wouldn't have been possible if not for 532-room Hilton Downtown Columbus opened in 2012.

Indeed, Columbus has heightened its profile as a market for citywide events - defined as those where groups use up to 750 hotel rooms on a peak night - but remains hamstrung when it comes to some of the largest.

Changing that would require additional hotel rooms connected to the Greater Columbus Convention Center, as outlined last fall in a study by Strategic Advisory Group that recommended the city push an expansion of the Hilton or 630-room Hyatt Regency.

'We are lacking right now on the full-service, large convention hotels,' Ross said. 'We continue to have those conversations (and) we've shared our views with the city, the county.'

Nonetheless, it hasn't stopped Experience Columbus from landing events. Through July, bookings are up 14 percent over last year.

And last month, the American Society of Association Executives committed to hosting its annual meeting, known in the industry as the Super Bowl of association meetings, in Columbus in 2019.

'This validates us as an emerging destination for trade shows, conventions and meetings,' Ross said.

Full article here.

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