This year, the Denver convention industry has been meeting like it’s 2019

When Charlsie Pinkerton was scouting cities three years ago to host her company’s future trade shows, she doesn’t recall ripped-up streets or construction being an issue during her first visit to downtown Denver in early 2022. And inflation at the time — Denver’s rate was about to hit a 40-year high — wasn’t a deal-breaker as prices were increasing everywhere. 

But she does remember the homeless camps and thinking about guest safety. After checking local crime stats and finding them comparable to other places with a convention center downtown, she picked Denver. In April, her company, Dot Foods, held its Innovations trade show at the Colorado Convention Center, the first time it had left St. Louis in 23 years. 

“I had to come to Denver multiple times a year from then until we had our show,” said Pinkerton, trade show manager for the Illinois-based food distributor. “And each time I came, it did show improvement on the homeless part. But what was so crazy is that when we actually had our show in April, I was like, where did all the homeless people go? It was like this problem was solved and I didn’t know it. No one told me, ‘Oh hey, our mayor is having this huge initiative to get the homeless camps out of downtown.’ It was astonishing at how effective it was.”

Four years after the pandemic disrupted downtown, Denver may still be in a state of repair, at least to locals. But even as city officials continue to deal with the challenge of finding shelter for homeless people, some outsiders are itching to return to downtown. The city ranks high on lists of top convention spots, including by meeting planners surveyed by market researcher Evidénz Research Group this year. Denver ranked No. 1 for best fit for large meetings in the future, according to the Evidénz data shared by the city’s visitors bureau. 

“We’re still trying to find the new normal, but what I will tell you is that this year, we’re probably going to finish our year very comparable to the year we had in 2019,”  Richard Scharf, CEO of Visit Denver, the city’s convention and visitor’s bureau said last month during a phone interview. “In 2025, we are literally up about 15% over 2019 … as long as nothing dramatic happens to change that.”

As of Friday, the number of convention guests next year is up 27% from this year, with 19% more rooms booked. “And we are still booking,” said Caroline Campbell, a spokeswoman for Visit Denver. 

Changing challenges of downtown

That’s a welcome change from March 2020 when pandemic disruptions began and all events at the Colorado Convention Center were canceled for the rest of the year. The facility was converted into an overflow hospital, although it never served any patients. It returned to tourism in July 2021 during the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.  

“And then we immediately went into delta, and then we went into omicron. And in (early) 2022, we canceled all of our meetings again,” Scharf said, citing the rise of COVID-19 variants. “We were disproportionately harmed as an industry. We had no nonstops, we had no international flights.”

Denver International Airport is on pace to hit a record for air travel in 2024. The airport has added new airlines and routes since 2019 and increased seat capacity by 23%, according to DIA data. The number of domestic flights this year is expected to be up 9% from 2019, while international flights are up 21%.

But as the city has recovered, others have recovered faster. A University of Toronto School of Cities project that measured economic recovery in 66 cities in North America ranked Denver in the bottom third. Kelly Brough, an urban development fellow at conservative think tank Common Sense Institute, wondered why Denver’s recovery was so much slower than other cities.

A report she cowrote for CSI notes that pedestrian traffic just hasn’t returned to the levels of 2019. Downtown foot traffic is 67% of what it was in 2019. The city’s office vacancy rates are at the highest in the Front Range, at 24%, as many office workers kept working remotely. And activity on weekends in the city ranked 11th worse in terms of foot traffic recovery.

“It’s pretty clear we can go faster than we’re going and it takes all of us,” said Brough, a Democrat who made an unsuccessful run for Denver mayor last year. “A slow recovery is not just an issue for the restaurants and retail that can’t make it downtown, which is huge because those are jobs. It does impact people’s experience downtown when it’s not activated and busy. It also impacts sales tax revenue for the city of Denver.”

Brough’s recommendations weren’t unlike those she made as CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. She said the city needs to better support businesses that are still here. Policies, such as annual minimum wage hikes or energy-efficiency building goals, put the burden on businesses and those need review to figure out what’s been impactful for the city. Support for commercial property owners is critical since they pay a larger share of property taxes that benefit schools. And the city should work with public and private employers — including the state — to get workers back in the office more frequently.

“It’s in all of our self-interests to have a vibrant downtown,” Brough said.  

High interest in Denver from outsiders

The city may not have the number of hotel rooms or the square footage of the largest convention spots, such as the perennial top cities of Las Vegas, Chicago and Orlando. 

But it tends to punch above its weight class, attracting visitors interested in skiing, outdoor activities and other amenities, said Rachel Andrews, senior director of Global Meetings & Events for Cvents, an event-planning software and services company that ranked Denver eighth on its top 50 list of meeting destinations in North America. The city has increased its rank since 2019, when it was 14th, and, she said, that’s credited to the culture and values of the region.

“Denver has also adopted a technology-first approach that prioritizes inclusivity, sustainability, and a unique sense of place,” Andrews said in an email. “These are exactly the elements that today’s event professionals and attendees are looking for.”

Dot Foods will be back next year because it signed a two-year contract. The Denver show’s attendance was up 23% to 3,200 people, the city was easier to get to, with more direct and international flights. And they were able to cut the number of hotels needed in half, down to eight, “and not have a shuttle,” she said

But in 2026 and 2027, the company will move the trade show to Houston mostly because it offered a good convention package. Pinkerton hopes to return to Denver in 2028, but there’s a good reason not to be in the Mile High City in between. 

“Denver did not have the dates available for us in 2026 and 2027 by the time we got around to sourcing it,” she said.

The Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel managed to get through the pandemic without closing. It was midway through a $100 million upgrade when COVID-19 struck. It was rough. Guests complained about safety outside the building, where the streets were filled with panhandlers or people sleeping outdoors. The hotel focused on finishing up when business dwindled. 

But during that down time, the hotel kept its full sales team, which would send wine to clients and do virtual wine tastings while making a sales pitch. It worked, said Tony Dunn, the Sheraton’s general manager. The hotel booked more events and visitors and he said occupancy rates are running “15 to 20 points higher than my competitors,” he said.

While visitor spending is due to inflation and price increases, the amount of money guests are spending on food and beverages has gone up dramatically — “I’m terrified of sharing some of these numbers. Some people might find them offensive,” he said. “Since ’19 to today, they’ve doubled.”

Business is “way busier” than 2019, he added. There’s also strong attendance at business events it hosts, which Dunn credits to people wanting to get together in person again. About 90% of the current business customers are coming from outside the Front Range, a figure similar to pre-COVID business. Once construction on 16th Street Mall, which runs in front of the hotel, is completed by mid-to-late 2025, he’ll consider business stabilized. 

“We have very few weeks to sell in 2025 and 2026 for us is better than 2025,” Dunn said. “Generally, the future feels good.”