· In the leisure sector, the greatest improvement was evident in “marketable” trips, i.e., trips by people who could travel to any destination but who specifically chose to visit Denver, which rose by 9 percent to a new record of 5.0 million visitors. This continues an unbroken trend of increases in “marketable visitors” that started in 2003.
· Overnight business travel to Denver continued to rebound after reaching a multi-year low in 2010, with 2.3 million business trips in 2012, up 6 percent over 2011 and 24 percent over 2010.
· Within the business segment, the number of people coming to Denver for conventions/conferences rose 5 percent to 880,000, and general business trips increased 7 percent to 1,440,000 in 2012 from 1,340,000 the year earlier.
“We are very pleased to see that our marketing efforts are working and that we continue to see an increase in the amount of lucrative ‘marketable’ visitors that come to Denver,” said Richard Scharf, president & CEO of VISIT DENVER, the city’s official tourism marketing arm. “Tourism and conventions don’t just happen. The Longwoods study allows us to see that since 2005 when voters approved more marketing dollars for Denver, we have seen a 43 percent increase in the number of leisure visitors coming to our city,” Scharf said.
