The recent Rhode Island Comic Con that drew tens of thousands of people to downtown Providence over three days is the latest sign of recovery in the booking of meetings and conventions that bring in revenue for local businesses.
Kristen Adamo, CEO and president of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, says second-tier cities such as Providence are faring much better than their larger counterparts such as New York and Los Angeles as they climb out of the devastation caused by COVID-19 when nearly all events were canceled and postponed.
Before the pandemic, convention and meeting planners were scheduling events three to five years ahead, Adamo says. That window has been shortened to 18 months to three years, and organizers and associations are looking to book smaller blocks of hotel rooms because of uncertainties over the number of attendees.
The shorter time frame is good for Adamo’s organization since the pandemic shutdown in 2020 made it difficult for the bureau to ink agreements with meeting planners for events scheduled to take place in 2023 and 2024.
“Right now, things are great in terms of lead volume,” Adamo said. “It’s through the roof. We missed two years of trying to sell business. There was literally no one working in our industry. [The activity now is] helping to fill in the gaps.”
Nevertheless, meetings and conventions activity isn’t where it stood before the pandemic.
In 2019, the PWCVB said the direct spending on lodging, transportation, food and beverage, venue rentals and recreation topped out at $74.9 million. The following year, when the pandemic hit, direct spending from meetings and conventions plummeted to $18.4 million in 2020.
With the return of sporting events in 2021, direct spending associated with convention center activity improved to $26.2 million for that year, PWCVB Vice President Thomas Riel said.
And the picture continues to look brighter. As of the end of September this year, direct spending had reached $67 million as the number of events grew.
A letter from the R.I. Convention Center Authority requesting state and federal aid during the pandemic said the PWCVB lost $62 million of revenue due to the COVID-19 crisis, resulting in $577 million in lost economic activity to Rhode Island.
In order to rebuild its core business and stimulate activity for the hospitality sector, the state committed $42 million to the convention center to be used over three to four years, including $10 million from American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Officials are already looking longingly at December 2023, when the city of Providence will host thousands of people expected to attend the Army-Navy football game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on Dec. 9. Three thousand U.S. Navy midshipmen will be housed at the convention center, and thousands more family members and alumni are expected to stay in the city.
More recently, Rhode Island Comic Con, one of the largest events at the center, took place from Nov. 4-6. The convention was celebrating its 10th anniversary and attracted as many as 90,000 comic book and film enthusiasts, leading to an estimated $3 million in direct spending.
Many of these visitors stay in hotels such as the Graduate Providence, where guests filter into the adjacent Reiner’s Bar and Game Room, providing a boost to sales, says Reiner’s General Manger Dave Strycharz.
Strycharz says convention center events increase sales by about 20%. The hospitality sector has not fully rebounded, but Strycharz is optimistic. “It’s getting there,” he said.
