A study commissioned by Visit Denver and the Convention and Visitors Bureau concludes that 2014 was a record year for visitor spending. The study was conducted by Longwoods International and their findings show that tourist spending in Denver was up 15 percent from 2013.

Denver Skyline. DUR spring 2015.

“Tourism and conventions are competitive industries. Visit Denver continues to make investments in sales and marketing for both leisure visitors and conventions to keep Denver top of mind and relevant. The Longwoods study allows us to see that since 2005 when voters approved more marketing dollars for Denver, we have seen a 65 percent increase in the number of leisure visitors coming to our city,” said Richard Scharf, president & CEO of Visit Denver, the city’s official tourism marketing arm.

The study states that Denver had a record 15.4 million overnight visitors in 2014; a number that is up 10 percent since 2013. In addition, convention and business travelers to the Mile High City was up 5 percent since 2013. According to the report overnight visitors spent a record $4.6 billion in 2014.

Longwoods International found that the top cities where leisure travelers came from when visiting Denver were Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. The top three states where vacationers came from were California, Texas, and Illinois.

“The city had blockbuster cultural exhibitions like Chihuly at Denver Botanic Gardens, Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed at Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century at the Denver Art Museum; we had our best convention year ever with nearly 430,000 delegates and huge meetings over normally soft dates like July 4th; plus we had some great bonus drivers like two Broncos home playoff games in January and the FIL Lacrosse World Championships in July. When you combine all that with our year-round tourism attractions, it adds up to one great year.”