Visit Indy: 2024 could be record year for Indianapolis tourism
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis appears to be on track to outpace pre-pandemic tourism numbers, according to new data released by Visit Indy.
In 2019, Indianapolis hosted 683 conventions. That number plummeted to just 264 in 2021. But officials say through the first six months of this year, Indy has hosted 402 conventions, and the city is on track to surpass 700 by the end of the year.
For Visit Indy Senior Vice President Chris Gahl, Indianapolis is at a tipping point for its nearly $6 billion tourism industry.
Gahl told Inside INdiana Business Host Gerry Dick that the city is on the cusp of record tourism numbers.
“All of our metrics are up: hotel occupancy, the number of conventions, the sheer volume of conventions, the size and magnitude and caliber of conventions and meetings and events,” Gahl said. “2024 be a record-setting year for Indy tourism…because of events like swimming, because of events like the NBA All-Star Game, Taylor Swift, all the conventions that are coming into our city, all the leisure visitors coming into our city.”
Gahl said there is a sense of pride that the city’s tourism industry has recovered from the challenges created by the pandemic.
And the industry will continue to grow. After the largest concrete pour in Indianapolis history, the 37-story Signia by Hilton hotel will soon begin rising from the ground as part of a more than $700 million expansion of the Indiana Convention Center. When it opens in 2026. Indy will have 13 hotels and 5,500 rooms connected by skywalk.
Gahl said since the groundbreaking for the hotel, Visit Indy has secured more than $1 billion in new business, including organizations that had previously given Indianapolis the cold shoulder.
“The American Legion, an international gathering that had not been here since 2019, a decade later in 2029, said yes to Indianapolis; they’re coming back,” he said. “Future Business Leaders of America had never met here. Because of this project, they said yes to Indianapolis. We have been able to retain events like DCI and Gen Con both threatening to leave because they were outgrowing our city, literally. Alcoholics Anonymous, we were 0-5; they said no to Indianapolis. But not for this project and this expansion, they said yes. Seventy thousand international visitors will come here for that major convention.”
Gahl said the numbers and construction activity present the potential for many more projects in the pipeline. He said the city has enough cranes in the air to give confidence to meeting executives.
“We’re at this tipping point, an inflection point, where meeting executives are racing into the city,” he said. “They’re seeing events like swimming and they’re going, ‘Something’s happening here. We want to be part of it.’ So now that the foundation is literally laid for Pan Am Plaza with a concrete pour, now we’re moving vertically.”
Another element contributing to Indy’s tourism bottom line is Airbnb and Vrbo rentals. For the month of November, when Taylor Swift’s last U.S. stop on the Eras Tour will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium, short-term rentals are up 163% over last year. Overall, rentals are up 23% over 2023.