Rochester Sports Tourism Numbers Bounce back in 2023

2023 was a very strong year for Rochester area sports tourism - according to Rochester Sports Executive Director Matt Esau. Esau reported 2023 numbers as 25,545 reported sports related hotel room nights verified and an estimated 31,931 total utilized for the year. The 109 sporting events accounted for 168,660 unique visitors coming to Rochester along with direct spending of $25,726,000 in 2023. Due to the pandemic and Minnesota's challenges with hosting amateur sporting events, these numbers took a dive with hotels reporting at only 9,484 rooms in 2020 and 14,476 in 2021. Things began to stabilize in 2022 with 29,911 estimated rooms consumed. 

Rochester Sports data reflects a ten-year total of $218,140,358 in direct spending for the Rochester from 839 events and 1,209,454 visitors. Sports tourism spending Worldwide is projected to reach approximately $2.5T (Trillion) by 2032!