Nearly two months following the influx of visitors and activity brought in by the
2024 Republican National Convention,
Visit Milwaukee president and CEO
Peggy Willams-Smith shared some early projections on the event's impact on the region.
Most notably, Milwaukee is on track to "most definitely" come away with the $200 million in economic impact that was repeatedly predicted since Milwaukee won the bid in July 2022, Williams-Smith told Greater Milwaukee Committee members Monday at their monthly membership meeting, held at American Family Field.
Visit Milwaukee and the nonprofit-nonpartisan
MKE 2024 Host Committee have hired U.K.-based Oxford Economics to produce a full report on the convention's economic impact and that report won't be complete until the end of the year.
Beyond the influx of dollars that flowed into the region's economy -- through spending at hotels, event venues, restaurants, transportation services and other businesses both during and prior to the July 15-18 event -- Williams-Smith touted the "numerous long-term benefits" of hosting a major political convention. That includes increased media exposure as the eyes of the political world turned to Milwaukee for those four days.
The RNC amassed 1 trillion total earned media impressions and an advertising value of $2 billion. From July 2022 to September 2024, the number of Milwaukee-2024 RNC mentions totaled 619,000, according to Visit Milwaukee.
"The convention delivered massive results that put Milwaukee in front of audiences we otherwise might not have been exposed to," said Williams-Smith, also pointing to a few key social media metrics.
In the past year alone, coverage of the RNC on social media generated 13 million posts and 110 million engagements. Additionally, there were a total of 1.4 million unique social media users talking about the convention taking place in Milwaukee.
The hope is the publicity that Milwaukee earned during the RNC will lead long-term to even more tourism as viewers and social media users around the globe caught a glimpse of the city and heard or saw positive messages about its people, culture and amenities. For Visit Milwaukee, the hope is also to leverage that exposure to book more large-scale events.
Williams-Smith said lead volume for events has more than doubled and Visit Milwaukee is already booking conventions through 2034.
