CLEVELAND (Oct. 2, 2024) – Destination Cleveland, the destination marketing and management organization for Cuyahoga County, today announced that leisure and business travel generated 18.34 million visits to Cuyahoga County in 2023. This represents a 2.2% increase over 2022[i], which mirrors the State of Ohio’s 2023 visitor growth rate (2.3%). The year-over-year increase is identical to the County’s 2019 (pre-pandemic) growth rate and reflects a return to sustainable, pre-pandemic growth.
“In 2023, Cuyahoga County’s tourism industry moved beyond recovery and continued to increase its value to our region’s economy,” said David Gilbert, president and CEO of Destination Cleveland. “Additionally, the consistent and continued growth in key metrics illustrates the impact and importance of the Cleveland visitor brand, which we launched 10 years ago. Since that launch, we’ve seen growth not only in visitation, direct spending and employment income but also in consideration of Cleveland as a place to visit. As the steward of the industry, Destination Cleveland continues to collaborate with our hospitality and civic partners to positively impact the region’s long-term equitable growth.”
Since the launch of the Cleveland visitor brand in 2014, visitation is up more than 8%; direct spending is up 24%; employment income has grown by an impressive 55%; and taxes generated are up 40% – translating into direct savings for Cuyahoga County residents.
Data from Tourism Economics, a division of Oxford Economics, shows that both day and overnight visitor volumes grew, with day visits increasing 2.5% and overnight visits up 1.3%. Day visitors represented 58% of the total number of visitors to the region, while 42% were overnight visitors, which is consistent with Cuyahoga County’s visit distribution since 2019.
2023 Direct Sales and Economic Impact
Visitor spending continued to contribute to the local economy[ii]. Travel and tourism in Cuyahoga County accounted for $6.7 billion in direct sales and generated a total economic impact of $10.9 billion when indirect and induced spending are included. This increase in direct spending represents a 3.7% increase from 2022 and is slightly greater than 2019’s pre-pandemic direct sales growth of 3.3%.
2023 Employment, Taxes Generated and Resident Tax Offset
More than 68,100 locals whose jobs support tourism in Cuyahoga County took home $3.7 billion in employment income, a 6.6% increase over 2022. Tourism-related jobs account for 7% of all jobs in the county[iii].
Additionally, tourism generated $1.5 billion in federal, state and local taxes, resulting in a savings of $1,380 in taxes for each Cuyahoga County household.
Recovery to 2019 Performance and 2024 Outlook
In 2023, all key performance indicators for Cuyahoga County’s tourism industry increased for a third straight year, infusing money into the economy. The increases are in line with or surpass the pace of pre-pandemic tourism growth in the County: