INDIANAPOLIS -- Visitors to Indianapolis set records again for the fourth consecutive year, boosting the region’s economy and setting a promising financial future for the city.
In 2015 28.2 million people visited Indianapolis and spent $4.9 billion. Their impact supported 77,800 full-time-equivalent jobs in central Indiana.
That was up from 2014 when 27.4 million visitors spent a then-record $44.6 billion, supporting 75,000 full-time-equivalent jobs.
While the 2016 numbers won’t be available until January of 2018, Visit Indy has also reported strong convention and tourism numbers from last year because of large events like Gen Con and the city’s strong tourist scene.
A few of the major wins that contributed to the success in 2016 include:
- A one-year extension of Gen Con through 2021, generating an estimated $72 million in economic impact.
- Rebooking USA Volleyball’s Girls Junior National Championship for 2019, bringing 50,000 visitors and generating an estimated $46 million in economic impact.
- Booking Primerica, one of Forbes’ top financial services companies, that will bring 50,000 attendees to the city in 2017 and generate an estimated $34 million in economic impact.
- Bringing CEDIA’s global trade show back to Indy in 2021 (for the first time since 2012), worth an estimated $22 million in economic impact.
- Rebooking American Railway Engineering & Maintenance Association for 2023, generating an estimated $11 million in economic impact.
Indy has also made the national spotlight in the last year, with headlines in some of the travel industry’s most respected names:
- “50 Best Places to Travel in 2017” – Travel + Leisure
- “Hottest Food Cities of 2016” – Zagat
- “America’s Most Underrated Food City” – Condé Nast Traveler
- “#1 Airport in North America” – Associated Press
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