Nearly 5 million people attended a meeting or convention in Virginia in 2023, with half staying overnight, fueling a $5.8 billion industry.
“The resurgence of Virginia’s meetings and conventions sector to pre-pandemic levels is an economic impact win that should be celebrated,” Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick said.
As you would guess, the industry experienced a massive decline in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 72 percent drop in meetings-related visitation and a 73 percent decrease in meetings-related travel spending.
According to the Virginia Tourism Corp., meetings and conventions visitor volume was essentially halted for two years and sat at less than half of pre-pandemic spending and visitation levels from 2020 through 2021.
The meetings and conventions sector finally got back to 2019 levels of spending in 2022, and meetings-related visitation finally reached full recovery in 2023.
“This recovery is a major milestone for our markets with large hotels, meeting spaces, and convention centers,” said Dan Roberts, vice president of research and strategy for Virginia Tourism Corp. “Meetings and convention visitors are core drivers of weeknight foot traffic in our downtown and convention center markets throughout the Commonwealth, benefitting our restaurants, retail, and recreational businesses.”
The meetings and conventions sector employs more than 56,000 Virginians, and generates $335 million in state and local tax revenues.
Looking at the sector from a regional perspective:
- Northern Virginia, home to about one-third of the state’s hotel rooms and a high concentration of meeting spaces, accounts for roughly half (47 percent) of all meetings-related spending in Virginia.
- Coastal Virginia, centered around the Hampton Roads region, accounts for 23 percent.
- Central and Southern Virginia, which includes Richmond, Charlottesville and Lynchburg, is at 18 percent.
- Western Virginia, inclusive of the Roanoke region, the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia, contributed 12 percent of meetings and conventions spending in the Commonwealth.
“Investing in our meetings infrastructure and enhancing our competitive edge is essential for Virginia to continue thriving as a top destination for business and leisure,” said Joni Johnson, director of domestic sales for Virginia Tourism Corp. “Tourism stakeholders across the Commonwealth have cited insufficient meeting space and hotel rooms as key reasons for losing business to competitors. This underscores the need for investment in meetings infrastructure, marketing support, and hotel development to maximize future economic impact.”
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Chris Graham
