2026 State of the Visitor Industry: Mid-Year Report

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Experience Columbus and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission (GCSC) released the 2026 State of the Visitor Industry: Mid-Year Report today and shared new visitation data, showing the local travel economy continues to break records. According to Longwoods International, visitors made 54.9 million trips (+3.3%) to Greater Columbus in 2025. Overnight trips also increased for the second consecutive year with an additional 400k trips, up 3.7%.

“We are thrilled to see visitation to Columbus continue to grow and reach an all-time high,” said Experience Columbus President and CEO Brian Ross, ECI. “Visitors have a huge impact on our community. New data from Tourism Economics from 2025 shows that the local travel economy supports 83,306 jobs in Columbus and Franklin County, or one in every 14 jobs. Visitors directly spend $8.6 billion at local businesses, generating $1.81 billion in local, state and federal tax revenue.”

Additional insights into Columbus travelers shared by Longwoods International include that of the total 54.9 million trips in 2025, 43.4 million were day trips, which involve travel of more than 50 miles from home, and 11.5 million trips were overnight trips. Of overnight travelers, 80% were repeat visitors, and 59% were repeat visitors within the past 12 months. The top travel markets for overnight trips to Columbus are Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York and Kentucky. The main purpose of overnight trips to Columbus are: visiting family and friends (46%), attending a special event (13%), taking a city trip (8%), other business trip (6%) and touring (5%).  
 
Looking back on the first half of the year, some of the biggest moments included the opening of the new Columbus Welcome Center in the Short North Arts District in February and leveraging Netflix’s “Love Is Blind,” which Columbus served as the backdrop for. The first quarter also brought the launch of IgniteHER Columbus, a collaboration between Mayor Ginther’s office and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission that aims to make Columbus the nation’s capital for women’s sports, and the official countdown to the NCAA Women’s Final Four in 2027 with the logo launch event in January.  

Leisure travel continued to grow through Experience Columbus’ Yes, Columbus campaign, which garnered 70 million impressions through two paid media campaigns so far in 2026 and a 66.8% arrival lift from paid media, according to Arrivalist. The campaign continued to leverage top national accolades earned for the city. National media coverage for Columbus in 2026 has included features in Eater, Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic, Midwest Living, USA TODAY and more.  

From Jan. 1 through June 30, 2026, Columbus hosted a total of 261 conventions, trade shows and sporting events, including nine citywide conventions. Examples include SEEK Conference, which represented 17,500 attendees, 19,000 room nights and $10 million in direct visitor spending, and the American Baseball Coaches Association Annual Convention, representing 10,000 attendees, 9,900 room nights and $10 million in direct visitor spending. Sports highlights included the SheBelieves Cup, featuring the U.S. Women’s National Team’s third trip to ScottsMiracle-Gro Field and OHSAA state championships in 10 sports.

“During the first half of the year, we hosted more than 60 events in more than 10 sports in a dozen venues,” said Greater Columbus Sports Commission CEO and President Linda Logan, ECI. “We’re proud to be among the leading cities in hosting high school and college championships. We’re counting down the days before the Women’s Final Four returns to Nationwide Arena in April 2027 and have been working closely with community partners to prepare for the biggest annual event in women’s sports.”

From Jan. 1 to June 30, 2026, the STR report, which provides premium data benchmarking, analytics, and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry, shows that all key performance metrics increased year over year. 

*RevPAR is a hotel industry performance metric, which is calculated by multiplying a hotel’s ADR by its occupancy rate. 
 
Bed tax collections from Jan. 1, 2026 through June 30, 2026 totaled $32 million, up 7% over the same period in 2025, according to reports from the Office of City of Columbus Auditor Jacquelin R. Lewis. Looking ahead, Experience Columbus and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission booked 286 conventions, meetings, trade shows and sporting events for future years and conducted 38 site visits for meeting and event professionals representing a total of 115,864 room nights in future business.  
 
To view past Experience Columbus and Greater Columbus Sports Commission quarterly reports, visit ExperienceColumbus.com/Reports.  

About Experience Columbus  
Celebrating 85 years in 2026, Experience Columbus is the destination marketing organization for the Columbus region dedicated to growing visitor spending and enhancing the visitor experience. Annually, visitors make 54.9 million trips to Greater Columbus for conventions, trade shows, sporting events and leisure visits, spending $8.6 billion and supporting more than 83,306 jobs. For more information, visit ExperienceColumbus.com.  
 
About the Greater Columbus Sports Commission 
The Greater Columbus Sports Commission’s mission is to rally Columbus to compete and win sporting events, providing a singular athlete and fan experience and positively impacting image, economy and lifestyle. Since 2002, the Greater Columbus Sports Commission has hosted more than 1,375 sporting events, generating an estimated $1.8 billion in direct visitor spending. Learn more at ColumbusSports.org.   

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Media Contacts:
Leah Berger, APR, ECI: lberger@experiencecolumbus.com | 614-222-6145
Cameron Walker, ECI: cwalker@experiencecolumbus.com | 614-222-6146