PHOENIX — As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, the city of Phoenix and downtown businesses are hoping conventions, conferences and trade shows make a strong return to the Phoenix Convention Center.
The convention center has played a significant role in mixing the business and tourism sectors over the past decade and helped turn downtown Phoenix into what it is today. But the pandemic forced the convention center to close down and led to millions of dollars not being spent in downtown Phoenix that not only hurt the city-owned venue, but also the surrounding hotels, restaurants and bars.
In November, a report filed with the Phoenix City Council said that 186 convention center events had been cancelled or postponed, which led to the loss of more than 160,000 people coming to downtown Phoenix and 224,000 hotel room nights in 2020. The city estimated that $235 million in direct visitor spending has been lost because of the canceled events and conventions.
But since it is now safer for people to gather together, trade groups and companies are looking to book or rebook their conventions and conferences again.
Read the full story at Phoenix Business Journal.
