BUSINESS EVENTS SALES & SERVICES

Group business continued its comeback in 2022 with significant progress toward a return to prepandemic levels. With nearly 224,000 room nights booked in 2022, the VisitPITTSBURGH Business Events Sales team finished the year at 89% of 2019 booking activity. This is particularly notable as it represents the first time since the pandemic started that VisitPITTSBURGH has outpaced the national average for future bookings (the national average for future bookings relative to 2019 is 81.2%).

As it relates to convention center business specifically, the Business Events Sales team had a record year for future events booked into the David L. Lawrence Convention Center with 61 events (compared to 41 events in 2019), with some events booked as far out as 2029. The number of future room nights booked in 2022 in conjunction with the convention center was nearly 50% ahead of 2019 levels.

Also important to the sales team’s future success, Pittsburgh continues to see the booking window expand. Nearly 90% of bookings in 2019 were expected to actualize within 0-2 years, with an overall average booking window of 273 days. In 2022, 68% of bookings are scheduled to actualize within 0-2 years, with an overall average booking window of 447 days (a 64% increase from 2019).