NEW HOTELS
Denver International airport has jumped from the fifth busiest airport in the US to the third busiest
THE SHERATON DENVER DOWNTOWN
In 2021, the Sheraton unveiled an US$80 million renovation touching every area of the hotel, including over 12,000 sqm of renovated meeting space, 1,238 redesigned guest rooms, and 138 suites. The expansive lobby area includes plenty of spots for seating and meetings plus the Coffee Bar Bar, which transforms from café to bar at night. marriott.com
THE RALLY HOTEL
The name of this 182-room hotel comes from the age-old baseball tradition of the rally cap, when fans wear their hats backwards or inside out in order to encourage their team to achieve a come-from-behind victory. Appropriately located next to Coors Field in the new McGregor Square development, the hotel also features a rooftop deck and pool, 1,950 sqm of event space, and three on-site restaurants. therallyhotel.com
THE SLATE DENVER, TAPESTRY COLLECTION BY HILTON
Housed in the historic Emily Griffith Opportunity School, which pioneered adult public education in Denver, this 251-room hotel sits just across the street from the convention centre. The four-storey property also has 418 sqm of meeting and event space with room names paying tribute to enduring education. theslatedenver.com; hilton.com
HOTEL CLIO
Located in the heart of Cherry Creek, this 199-room space opened in 2022 after an extensive renovation and rebrand of the former JW Marriot. The hotel features more than 900 sqm of meeting and event space and the Latin-inspired Toro restaurant, specialising in ceviche and small plates. hotelcliocherrycreek.com ART THAT SETS APART
For a funkier vibe, RiNo, short for River North (so named for its location off the north end of the Platte River), has also exploded in popularity in recent years, becoming one of the city’s most lively arts and music centres.
Denver’s involvement in the arts has always outpaced its size, ranking sixth in overall arts businesses while ranked 19th in population, but the phenomenal growth and success of RiNo and its artists has only spurred increased interest and investment in recent years. In 2021, Denver became the third city in the country (after Santa Fe and Las Vegas) to host a permanent installation of Meow Wolf, a colourful, surreal space that walks visitors through four floors featuring more than 110 Colorado-based artists. The Denver Art Museum also recently celebrated its 50th anniversary with a US$175 million renovation, unveiled in late 2021, that features updated galleries, two new dining spots, and a more inclusive approach. The indigenous art galleries, for instance, now feature video interviews with artists and members of the local Ute, Arapaho, and Cheyenne communities, while textual “Community Labels” give additional local perspective on historical works of art.
THE CHANGING FACE OF TRAVEL
These cultural offerings have helped domestic travel return to Denver at a respectable pace, with the city seeing 31.7 million total visitors in 2021, a 14.5 per cent increase over 2020 – most of whom travelled from states including Texas, California, and Florida. Indeed Denver International airport has jumped from the fifth busiest airport in the US in 2019 to the third busiest airport in 2021, just after
Atlanta and Dallas, with nearly 60 million annual passengers.
The state of Colorado as a whole projects a full international travel recovery by 2024.
To accommodate this rapid growth, the airport has been undergoing a US$770 million renovation of its Great Hall to improve security, ticketing counters, and accommodate the 100 million annual visitors expected in ten years. The project has run into some delays and contractor disputes, slowing the progress, but is currently expected to be completed in 2024.
The airport has also completed its US$2 billion gate expansion project in November, which includes 39 new gates across all three of the airport’s concourses, increasing gate capacity by 30 per cent.
While business travel has yet to bounce back to its previous levels, hotels are seeing occupancy numbers that are finally exceeding 2019 levels, with visitation supplemented by a focus on other market segments like group travel, leisure and bleisure.
“At Le Méridien Denver Downtown, we have seen an increase in hotel guests coming to the city to visit family and friends but spending their weekdays working on their computers in the lobby,” said Christy DeSiato, the Denver market director of sales and marketing at property management company White Lodging. There are still those that come to the city purely for business, however, with Colorado Convention Center’s 54,255 sqm of exhibit space popular amongst tech and scientific conventions or trade shows. “From November through June, we see a lot of corporate and convention centredriven travel, both in terms of hotel and dining guests,” said DeSiato. To cater to growing demand, the convention centre will undergo an expansion in late 2023, adding more than 7,430 sqm of meeting and ballroom space, 3,250 sqm of pre-function space and a 1,858 sqm outdoor terrace on the rooftop of the existing building.
The centre saw the return of
The Great American Beer Festival in October 2022, held in Denver annually since 1982 (though there was a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic). More than 40,000 guests clinked glasses as they sampled over 2,000 beers from 200 breweries around the world.
There is no clearer sign of Denver’s promising bounce back, a city which prides itself on its nickname ‘the Napa Valley of beer’. My recommendation for feeling like a true local would entail sampling a craft beer from one of the city’s 100+ breweries, brewpubs, and taprooms. If you’re feeling adventurous, pair it with a wild game hot dog from Biker Jim’s in LoDo — bison, rattlesnake, and jacakalope (antelope mixed with rabbit) are just a few of the 13 outthere flavours
Just don’t forget you’re at high altitude, where everything hits harder, and stay hydrated in-between sips if you have meetings the next day.
Bison, rattlesnake and jackalope are just a few of the 13 out-there flavours