In 2017, the City of Houston hosted Super Bowl 51, weathered Hurricane Harvey, celebrated their first World Series Astros win and set another record-setting year in convention sales. Visit Houston announced for the third straight year, an unprecedented number of room nights tied to future conventions were booked in 2017. The sales team booked 429 conventions and meetings in 2017, representing 802,852 room nights, up from 765,401 room nights in 2016.
Key bookings attained in 2017 include the American Dental Association in 2022 and National Association of Realtors in 2025. Many of the citywide 
conventions secured in 2017 are first time bookings, thanks in large part to recent improvements that further showcase Houston as a world class destination. Houston First, which operates in partnership with the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau under the brand name “Visit Houston”, and that partnership is responsible for bringing conventions and tourism to the city.
The 2017 numbers were bolstered by a highly successful Super Bowl LI, renovation of the George R. Brown Convention Center, activation of Avenida Houston (downtown’s newest pedestrian-friendly entertainment district), along with new restaurants and hotels including the 1,000-room Marriott Marquis, which complements the 1,200-room Hilton Americas-Houston, both of which are connected to the GRB. Having two headquarter hotels, along with the boldly-redesigned walkable entertainment district provide the sales team with a much more attractive package to better compete with other cities for convention business.
“Our city is experiencing the return on investments in our convention district. More conventions and hotel room nights result in more jobs and an overall positive economic impact on Houston,” said Dawn Ullrich, retiring president and CEO of Houston First. “Our sales, events and services teams are to be commended for their tireless work to grow and strengthen Houston’s convention and meeting business.”
“When you consider where we were three years ago, the upward trend in room nights is even more impressive,” said Mike Waterman, president of Visit Houston. “Our sales team’s production jumped from 550,000 room nights in 2014 to more than 800,000, a 41 percent increase, surpassing our 2017 goal by more than fifty thousand room nights. Houston has spent the last several years improving our infrastructure to compete on a global scale. We are thrilled that our global profile as a destination is being solidified and we expect this positive momentum to continue to build.”
In addition to record convention sales, the organization’s website network, led by VisitHouston.com, logged 7.8 million visitors in 2017, up from 7.4 million in 2016. Global attention because of the Super Bowl and World Series combined with strategic marketing and public relations efforts resulted in more than 140 interviews and 434 positive articles, both domestic and international about Houston as a destination.
