2024 Houston Rodeo generated nearly $600 million in economic activity, according to impact report – Houston Public Media

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo reeled in nearly $600 million in total economic activity during this year’s 20-day-long event.

The event’s total revenue was up 44 percent this year since the last time RodeoHouston conducted an economic impact report in 2019. The 2024 rodeo generated an economic impact of $348 million, with total economic activity exceeding $597 million.

The study was conducted by Economic Analytics Consulting, an independent consulting firm that analyzed the event’s financial impacts including lodging rates, per-person food and drink spending and entertainment costs.

“This study really included the start of the show, which starts at the barbeque and then the actual 20 days that we are on the full ground,” Chris Boleman, President and CEO of RodeoHouston said. “What we want to do is utilize these numbers to help us better prepare for the future.”

The economic impact largely exceeded the 2019 event, which brought in $227 million, with a total economic activity of $391 million.

“One of the areas that we saw an increase in was actual spending on the ground, including people purchasing more farm and ranch equipment,” Boleman said.

Lucio Vasquez / Houston Public Media

Most of the attendees of the event this year came from other counties surrounding Houston.

“When you look at it, we are uniquely positioned in the fact that we are a community event that has a lot of people that come in from the seven-county radius but then also across the nation and internationally,” he said.

The event generated more than 7,000 jobs and brought in more than 1 million attendees, including about 28% of visitors from the Greater Houston area. About 8% of visitors from outside of Texas attended the 2024 event, including 2% of international travelers.

The total attendance over the days-long event topped 2.5 million, according to RodeoHouston. Comparatively, there were just over 2.5 million attendees in 2019.

Boleman said there was a slight decline in attendance in 2022.

“2023 was kind of back to where we were pre-COVID, and then 2024 overall attendance was just a tick higher than 2023, so we feel that we are back to normal,” he said.

The 20-day rodeo and the barbeque contest are the primary ticketed events for which attendance is tracked, according to the report. Altogether, the event boasted its highest total attendance since 2017. Attendees broke the concert record attendance twice: first by Los Tigres Del Norte with 75,595 people and then by the Jonas Brothers with 75,600 attendees.

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Boleman said there were about 1.3 million people in the stadium this year and about 1.2 million on the rodeo grounds that didn’t go into the stadium.

Boleman said looking ahead, organizers will be tasked with “trying to spread out better and take advantage of more total acreage to help better spread crowd control issues out.”

“When we look at these numbers, they help to tell a story and help to plan as we look toward the future,” he said.

Rob Salinas contributed to this report.