PROVIDENCE – The Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau is expecting a profitable summer with direct spending and hotel room sales exceeding pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels with a full schedule of business events and sports-related travel.
The agency said Friday that it is projecting nearly $23 million in direct spending in June, July and August, helped by summer business events that include the Ocean State LobsterFest hockey tournament, which will take place over three weekends in June, the 4th of July Showcase baseball tournament on July 1-3, and the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions Congress on July 16-20.
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“Our summer conference calendar is full, and that is a testament to the hard work of our team and the resilience of our tourism industry,” said Kristen Adamo, CEO and president of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Not only do people want to visit Providence, they want to host their meetings here because we have it all: great food, history and arts, and an incomparable education and innovation culture, all in an easily accessible and walkable city. We are confident in the trajectory of travel demand in Providence, but we have merely scratched the surface of opportunities for growth.”
The agency also said Friday that the tourism and hospitality industry remains a strong economic driver in Providence, with meetings, conventions and sporting event sales alone generating $68 million dollars in trackable direct spending in 2023. Following the successful rollout of the Tourism Improvement District in Providence, the PWCVB will pour an additional estimated $1.6 million into sales and marketing in the city.
PWCVB recently moved into 100 Westminster St. in downtown Providence about a half-mile away from its previous headquarters at the IGT Center.
“This is an exciting time in the Providence tourism industry. At the PWCVB, we are continuing to evolve – and it makes sense to center ourselves in the heart of downtown, which is in the midst of its own transformation,” Adamo said. “Now that the pandemic is behind us, we are more focused than ever on new initiatives to drive tourism in Providence and beyond.”
