2022.10 Board Report City Report: NON-voting

City Report

Monthly Reporting & Performance Measures September 2022

 Overall lead demand continues to recover, however numbers are lagging as compared to 2019 performance.

 Large citywide 2022 groups are continuing to recovery and increase attendance.

 Site visits continue to increase which is another good sign. 2023 groups are also in the planning phases and scheduling in depth site tours with large numbers of staff and vendors, which are great opportunities to showcase the City and our partners.

 Tradeshows and conferences are wrapping up for 2022, attendance has been strong and the team has received many leads from the tradeshows.

 The small and mid size markets continue to see a large number of short term opportunities with the average booking window being within 2-years.

 Research is showing a continued disconnect between planners and attendees. Planners are ready for in person meetings to be back to pre COVID experiences and attendees remain hesitant. For attendees, some of this is due to economy, financial impacts and health concerns.

SEPTEMBER INTERNATIONAL & DOMESTIC TRAVEL TRADE:

International:

Room nights: 231 reported from travel trade and marketing campaigns.

Marketing Initiatives (40 YTD)

Flight Centre (UK): Denver digital marketing campaign resulted in 199,192 consumer impressions and 182 Denver room nights booked.

Sensations du Monde (France): Denver article included in e newsletter to 26,000 consumers.

Visit USA Association (UK): Denver article in e newsletter to 17,000 travel trade.

Visit USA Association (UK): 181 website impressions. (ongoing initiative)

Brand USA VisitTheUSA.com (Global): 8,612 website impressions. (ongoing initiative)

Travel Trade Trainings (13 YTD/1,422 trade trained)

Brand USA (Japan): Webinar training 311 Japan travel trade on Denver.

Rocky Mountaineer & United Airlines (UK): Colorado Tourism Office trained 93 travel trade during roadshow events highlighting Denver and the Rockies to Red Rocks route.

Visit USA (France): Visit Denver virtual training platform on Visit USA France website graduated 54 travel trade professionals.

Tradeshow/Sales Mission (7 tradeshows/1 sales mission YTD)

Brand USA Travel Week (Germany): Appointments with 39 top travel trade companies from across Europe.

New Programs (26 YTD)

Itine rari (Italy): Group tour with 2 nights in Denver

Domestic & Canada:

Room nights: 741 from weddings.

Marketing

o Denver Beer Week kicked off on September 30, taking place through October 9.

o More than 160 events across the Denver metro area.

o 48 breweries participated in the new edition of the Denver Beer Trail, the most to date.

o The marketing team submitted the first draft of VISIT DENVER’s 2022 Marketing Plan to the City on September 1, per the City contract. The final draft is due to the City on November 15.

Interactive

o Total monthly visits to all websites and mobile apps in September were 758, 309 visits, which is up 9% from September 2021.

o Top pages included the landing pages for Denver’s biggest events for 2022 (over 84k) and things to do (over 78k).

Social Media

o Total paid social media ad impressions (primarily Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) were 4,862,701 in the month of September.

o Included in that are more than 414k views of VISIT DENVER videos promoted on social platforms.

Evidénz

National Meeting Planner Study

On June 22, VISIT DENVER released research from Evidénz Dimensional Marketing Research showing how well the city and organization performed as a convention destination.

Each year, VISIT DENVER’s sales team books meetings worth more than $600M of economic impact for the city and our partners. Denver has quickly grown to become one of the top convention destinations in the country, combining all the key attributes that meeting planners want, including: accessibility, facilities, accommodations, affordability, safety, service and destination appeal. A recent study by Evidénz shows how Denver tops meeting planners lists in a number of key attributes.

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About the 2022 Meeting Planner Study:

o 459 Meeting Planners (MPs) in North America answered the 2022 Study

• 322 Corporate/Association/Other Planners

• 137 Independent Meeting Planners

o 85% of MPs have been a meeting planner for 10 or more years

o 60% of MPs commit to space and sign a contract for space for their largest meeting 3 or more years in advance

 Denver Results

o City overall perception (based on key selection factors like hotels, safety, accessibility, convention facilities, city appeal, etc.): Denver ranks #1 for to 40 for U.S. cities!

o City they are already contracted with: Denver ranks #1 for top 40 U.S. cities!

o City that’s the best fit for their largest meetings: Denver ranks #1 for top 40 U.S. cities!

o Convention & Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) that have made a proposal (formally or informally in the past 12 months): Denver ranks #1 for top 40 U.S. cities!

o City most talked about: Denver ranks #3 for top 40 U.S. cities.

o City that planners would meet in again: Denver ranks #3 for top 40 U.S. cities.

o City that planners would recommend to others: Denver ranks #5 for top 40 U.S. cities.

Longwoods International Annual Visitor Profile Study

Denver Tourism Surges to 31M+ Visitors in 2021 - Leisure travel shows strong return amid continuing struggles in business travel sectors

In 2021, Denver welcomed 31.7 million visitors, regaining much of the losses experienced during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. Growth was particularly strong in the domestic overnight leisure market, while flat growth in business travel segments, and the lack of an overseas international market last year, shows that the industry – in Denver and across the country – still has a ways to go to catch up with the benchmark year of 2019. That said, the numbers are a cause for cautious optimism as travelers hit the road in large numbers last year and spent similar to pre-COVID levels. Travel spending by all visitors to Denver in 2021 reached $6.6 billion, a figure not far from the record $7 billion spent in 2019.

Longwoods International also conducted Return on Investment (ROI) research for VISIT DENVER’s 2021 summer advertising campaign, its largest of the year. The study revealed some of the strongest ROI numbers VISIT DENVER has seen, showing that the campaign generated 1.2 mil lion incremental trips, generating $338 million in incremental visitor spending and $38 million in state and local taxes. Measured against spending, the campaign generated an ROI of $151 in visitor spending and $17 in taxes for every $1 in advertising investment.

Key numbers for 2021 include:

o Denver welcomed 31.7 total visitors in 2021, including 16.6 million overnight visitors and 15.1 million day visitors, a 14.5% increase over 2020.

o Overnight leisure visitors totaled 14.8 million in 2021, a 27% increase over 2020.

o There were 7.1 million “marketable” leisure visitors in 2021, a 26% increase over 2020. This segment has the most discretion on where to vacation and responds to tourism marketing. This audience is the primary focus of much of VISIT DENVER’s marketing efforts and spends more time and money in-market than any other leisure visitor type.

o Denver visitors spent $6.6 billion in 2021, including $5.5 billion from overnight visitors and an additional $1.1 billion in spending from day visitors, a 26.2% increase over 2020.

o Denver overnight visitors spent more than $1.5 billion on accommodations, and $974 million on food and beverages.

o Expenditures by overnight visitors on transportation reached more than $1.8 billion. Retail purchases were $700 million, whil e overnight visitors spent nearly $500 million on paid attractions and other recreational and sightseeing activities.

o On average in 2021, the biggest spenders were business travelers, who spent $173 per day; followed by marketable visitors, who s pent $158 per day. Day visitors spent $73 per day.

o Out-of-state overnight leisure travelers comprised 78 percent of visitors (up from 76 percent in 2020).