Community Leader - August 2022

WHERE BUSINESS GOES TO GROW

BUSINESS Re: Visiting Travel and tourism are rebounding and on pace to eclipse pre-COVID-19 levels. B Y A L E X E M E R S O N , J I L L S E L L , LY N N E T H O M P S O N A N D T E R R Y T R O Y

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36 COMMUNITY LEADER | AUGUST 2022

Although the conventions and meetings business is looking much stronger, business travel is still lagging behind the rest of the industry, Gilbert admits. There are a couple of reasons Cleveland is doing better than the rest of the nation, including the hosting of blockbuster events such as the NFL Draft in 2021 and the NBA All-Star Game earlier this year. The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, of which Gilbert is also president and CEO, estimates that the NFL Draft, which took place from April 29 through May 1, 2021, had an overall economic impact of $42 million on Cleveland. Attendance, despite lingering COVID-19 fears, was estimated at 160,000 visitors with 40.1 million watching on television nationwide across the three-day event.

Held less than a year later, in February of this year, the 2022 NBA AllStar Game (and associated events) provided Northeast Ohio with an economic impact estimated to be just south of $250 million. That really helped offset the dramatic downturn caused by COVID-19. For 2020, Cuyahoga County registered 13.8 million visits, down 30% from 2019; and economic impact slid to $7.1 billion, a 27% drop. Both declines resulted from the immediate shutdown and prolonged contraction of the travel industry. Visitation to Cuyahoga County declined at a similar rate to U.S. domestic visitation, a drop of 32% in 2020. Although business bottomed out at the height of the pandemic, Destination Cleveland is quick to add that the Cleveland brand was and still is on the

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ith Destination Cleveland’s annual meeting a few days off as of press time for Community Leader, David Gilbert, president and CEO of the travel and tourism organization, shares some insights as to what might be on the industry’s horizon in the coming year. Some of the city’s key players also share what they have done to help overcome the negative effects of the pandemic, as well as the ongoing impact those effects are having on Cleveland’s travel and tourism industry. “To start with, the numbers are trending in the right direction and the recovery is looking very strong,” says Gilbert. “All of the numbers we have so far this year are tracking better than the rest of the nation in terms of our recovery, and all of the indicators are pointing to the fact that we are getting back on our feet.”