The booming Phoenix hospitality sector is poised for another win as it hosts the Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday.
(Bloomberg) — The booming Phoenix hospitality sector is poised for another win as it hosts the Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday.
Phoenix is one of the few US hotel markets to fully recover from its pandemic slump, and should get another boost as it welcomes the largest sporting event in the nation this weekend, Wells Fargo & Co. economists led by Charlie Dougherty wrote in a note Wednesday. As of year-end, the city’s hotel occupancy rates and employment in its leisure and hospitality sector were above 2019 levels, they added.
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In addition to being home to four professional sports franchises, the economists noted the Phoenix metro area also hosts major college football and golf championships, as well as NASCAR races. “Sports are a key contributor to the metro’s robust leisure and hospitality sector, which attracts millions of visitors each year,” they wrote.
“Hosting the Super Bowl will be yet another boon for Phoenix’s hotel market, especially considering the previous record for daily room revenues was set back in 2015 when the city hosted Super Bowl XLIX,” the economists said.
Phoenix emerged as a poster child for growth in the pandemic era, becoming home to one of the fastest-growing populations and real estate markets in the country as it attracted semiconductor and other manufacturing plants, as well as remote workers looking for a sunny destination.
But the desert rush also made the Arizona capital an inflation hot spot for much of the pandemic, with price increases running at about twice the rate in New York and San Francisco.
Wells Fargo also predicted the Eagles will take this year’s championship home, winning 30-27 in a “hotly contested” game.
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