Denver Auto Show driving numbers at convention site
Space is in high demand at the bustling Colorado Convention Center, and backers of the Denver Auto Show are hoping that a new study pegging the show’s economic impact at $60 million will give them leverage in booking that space.
“We have trouble getting the space we need, when we need it and in the configuration we need,” said Tim Jackson, the president and CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, which hosts the show each year. This year’s show runs April 4-8.
The association hired BBC Research & Consulting to measure the economic impact of last year’s show, which brought about 500 cars and numerous accessories under one massive roof for tens of thousands of consumers to peruse.
“We knew we had a story to tell. We just didn’t have the numbers to tell it,” said Jackson.
BBC estimated that last year’s show generated more than $60 million in the sevencounty metro area: $32 million in direct spending and $28.2 million in indirect spending.
Almost all of that came from the purchases people made at the show or in the weeks after. About $30 million of the direct spending came from items purchased from vendors at the show, enough to support about 490 jobs in the local economy. Another $26.7 million in purchases were made after the show.
Currently, private meetings that cater to out-of-town groups likely to fill hotel rooms are given priority, while shows that are open to local consumers are relegated to the leftover time slots and space, Jackson said.
“It is difficult to compare the economic impact of a public show and convention business where the majority of the spend is from out-of-town delegates, but in the end,
consumer shows and convention business are both good for Denver and Colorado,” said Richard Scharf, the president and CEO of Visit Denver, which oversees the convention center.
BBC, which surveyed 600 attendees to come up with its estimates, counted more than 10,000 visitors from outside the Denver area and found that around 11 percent made purchases from vendors at the show averaging $5,160, while another 14 percent purchased something after the event from a vendor at the show, with an average price tag of $37,000 -- in other words, a car or truck.
For local visitors, about 8 percent made a purchase at the show with the ticket price averaging $2,300. About 15 percent made a buy after the show, with the average at $30,600. About 59 percent of those dollars were spent with local vendors.
In short, people who attend the show are more likely to purchase a vehicle afterward, the study found, although it is difficult to know to what degree they were going to buy anyway. But those purchases bring big tax dollars into local and state government coffers.
“It is the highest singleindustry category for tax collection for state and local governments of any industry,” Jackson said.
The Denver Auto Show, which started in 1902, is the country’s third oldest -- after New York and Chicago.