How the Indianapolis tourism industry is recovering during the pandemic

Indianapolis Star

Visit Indy, city officials and hospitality workers gathered Tuesday at the Indiana Convention Center for the 30th annual ROSE Awards and to mark tourism's continued recovery from the impact of COVID-19.

The event, whose acronym stands for recognition of service excellence, celebrated local hospitality workers and highlighted their resiliency during the pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic devastated tourism as stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions forced the cancellation of city events and conventions. Hotels and restaurants temporarily closed, with some dining establishments never opening again.

Businesses furloughed and laid off hospitality workers. Some hotels lost money as their occupancy rates nosedived and rooms went unused. Visit Indy estimates that about 40% of the city's tourism workforce was unemployed in 2020 and that the city lost $612 million in convention business directly tied to the pandemic.

Commerce continues to ramp up as the city still grapples with the ongoing pandemic, and tourism officials are celebrating their wins. The city played host to both the Big Ten and NCAA 2021 men's basketball tournaments this year, in addition to other sports events.

A bird gets an aerial view as the giant March Madness basketball bracket sign begins to come down Tuesday, April 6, 2021 off the J.W. Marriott in downtown Indianapolis, after March Madness and Final Four finished.

Visit Indy President and CEO Leonard Hoops shared more numbers related to tourism in 2020 and beyond. Here's some of what he said.

The Capital Improvement Board invested $7 million in health and safety upgrades to the convention center and Lucas Oil Stadium.
As of Tuesday, it was 419 days since the 2020 ROSE Awards. The event took place the same day the Big Ten announced the cancellation of Indianapolis tournament games due to COVID-19.
Globally the tourism industry lost $4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs due to the pandemic.
Visit Indy moved to a four-day workweek on April 1, 2020. The tourism agency returned to a five-day workweek on March 1.
The tourism agency reduced its staff from 62 people to 51.

Signage is removed from Lucas Oil Stadium, Tuesday, April 6, 2021 in downtown Indianapolis, after March Madness and Final Four finished.

173,592 fans bought tickets to the NCAA March Madness games in Indiana this year.
68 teams participated the basketball tournament.
66 of the planned 67 tournament games took place.
The tournament resulted in a lot of free publicity for the city. Indianapolis got 4,263 media hits during the basketball tournament that had over 926.6 million impressions. Hoops said that type of advertising would cost the city over $23.4 million if it had paid for that kind of publicity.
From March 14 to April 6 of this year, the city saw roughly 64% of the hotel revenue it brought in during the same period in 2019.
Indianapolis is ranked 7th for highest revenue per available room in the country through the end of April. It's behind spring break cities like Miami and Tampa, and Washington, D.C., during a presidential transition year.
29 conventions will meet at the Indiana Convention Center though the end of December. That includes the Sweet & Snacks Expo, FFA Convention & Expo, Performance Racing Industry trade show and GenCon, among others.
Indianapolis had the 9th biggest hotel sales night in the history of Central Indiana on April 24. Hoops said hotels were selling hundreds of rooms for day-of stays that Saturday. "People were just getting out," he said.

Contact IndyStar reporter Alexandria Burris at aburris@gannett.com or call 317-617-2690. Follow her on Twitter: @allyburris.