Mark Oprea
Viewers of the April 8 Total Solar Eclipse at Voinovich Park. That six-minute celestial event led to nearly $25 million being spent across the region, Destination Cleveland said.
And all those visitors seeking meaning and joy in those fleeting, dim minutes brought in quite a load of cash—$25 million, to be exact.
A dozen celestial events, from NASA's Total Eclipse Fest on the lake, to Lorain's own Solar Eclipse Viewing Party, brought in tens of millions in spending on hotels, food, transportation and shopping, Destination Cleveland announced on Wednesday.
Hotel stays, which were a hot commodity in Downtown Cleveland, made up a huge chunk of that money. (And Airbnbs, with some running for as much as $2,000 to $3,000 a night.) Every county in the region saw occupancy rates spike 80 percent on average on April 7 and 8, compared to the same dates in 2023.
But as was the case after the 2016 Republican National Convention and the World Series that followed, such figures speak to greater implications than just money spent. Region-wide spectacles, worthy of years-long planning, help convey needed PR for Cleveland as the city continues to sell itself nationally as a viable place to move—to escape unreachable home prices or ongoing climate concerns.
"Being in path of totality put Cleveland in the national spotlight," Destination Cleveland CEO David Gilbert wrote in a release.
That, and the NCAA Final Four Championship that ran concurrently with the eclipse festivities, Gilbert added, "has a direct and lasting impact on how people perceive Cleveland."
But will those six minutes of celestial magic nudge out-of-towners to buy into Cleveland's somewhat promising future?
A lot has been written about Cleveland's promise as a climate haven city, or how its apparent leadership in the office conversion uptick will lead to population spikes. But pinning down moves tied to specific high-profile events is a lot harder, even impossible to ascertain.
Just as it is to pin that $25 million solely on the actions of tourists.
"I've got to state this honestly: 95 percent of our attendance was Clevelanders," said Mike Miller, the owner of the Music Box Supper Club, which hosted its own rooftop eclipse party.
Though Miller sold tickets ($125 a pop) to 300 rooftop partygoers, just a small fraction of those, he said, went to people living outside Cuyahoga County. The upshot is that Music Box's unique vantage point of a once-in-a-lifetime event sells, in Miller's mind, the notion of partying on the river to those that don't do it on the regular.
That multiplier effect could increase as Downtown Cleveland attracts more private development, á la Bedrock's $2 billion neighborhood south of Tower City, or Mayor Bibb's pursuit of the North Coast Lakefront Plan.
"I mean, we see it all the time: One concert for us always leads to 10 concerts," Miller said. "And do those people move here? Yes, I think some of them do."
