Louisville’s 2024 Gameplan Emphasizes Sports Segment
Kentucky Derby 150, PGA Championship & Youth Sports Comprise Top 3 Generators
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (February 5, 2024) Louisville is off to the races with two mega sporting events on the 2024 calendar. The city is just a few months ahead of the highly anticipated Kentucky Derby 150 - with the prestigious 106th PGA Championship following a week later. During these nationally televised events, all eyes will be on Bourbon City.
The remainder of Louisville’s top events for 2024 continue the sports theme with youth basketball, volleyball and archery tournaments - along with Ironman 70.3 and the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball National Championship.
The Top 20 events are projected (at this time) to have the largest estimated economic impact (EEI) for the Louisville area this year:
“We know Louisville will be in the national limelight several times throughout the year, elevating the city’s brand well past 2024,” said Cleo Battle. “With Travel + Leisure recently designating our city as one of the ’50 Best Places to Travel to in 2024,’ Louisville is coming out of the gate with a strong start to the year.”
Though not in the list of top 20 events by estimated economic impact, other significant 2024 hosted groups include high-profile meeting and event planners. These conferences offer opportunities to showcase Louisville directly to decision-makers, which in turn produces potential future event bookings for the city. Two notable 2024 groups are the Meeting Professionals International (MPI), held in May just after the PGA Championship with 2,500 national and international attendees, as well as a key meeting orchestrated by the Association of Black Travel Professionals.
Bourbon City will see a new event in October, named Bourbon and Belonging. This themed week will combine the efforts of eight Kentucky Destination Marketing Organizations joining together to showcase the state’s rich Bourbon and hospitality cultures to LGBTQ+ visitors from all over. Inspired by “Gay Wine Weekend” in Sonoma and “QueerBeer Fest'' in Washington DC., this event aims to highlight extensive Bourbon experiences and Queer communities across the state.
By hosting this comprehensive mix of groups, Louisville Tourism is actively making strides to reach the city’s overall goal of welcoming 25 million annual visitors by 2030.