The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland has commissioned a study of the museum’s economic impact on Northeast Ohio. The study found that tourists came, they saw, and they spent.
Visitor spending added up to an estimated $127 million last year. Rock Hall CEO Greg Harris says they weren’t just passing by.
“Sixty percent of the Rock Hall of Fame visitors, their reason for visiting Cleveland is to come to the rock hall,” Harris says. “Now the hope is that when they come here they also go to the art museum, or the West Side Market, or to an Indians game or something else. But the reason for visiting was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”
That’s true for Al and Carol Bensley of Rochester, N.Y. They usually speed through Cleveland on their way to visit their children in Chicago.
“It’s on my bucket list to see the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and we stopped the last night, we stayed a full day today, and we’ll leave tomorrow for Rochester,” Al Bensley says.
The Bensleys say now they want to come back and see other museums Northeast Ohio has to offer.
Next month, Cleveland will host the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. That week alone, says Greg Harris, is enough to generate more than $16 million and worldwide press attention.
