Tourism
Where Visitor Demand Creates Real Opportunity
Mesa offers the fundamentals hotel, retail, and restaurant users look for: overnight visitation, major event traffic, strong regional access, and room to grow. For developers, retail brands, brokers, and site selectors, Mesa is a market where tourism demand and local scale come together to support new investment.
Why Mesa? A Broad-Based Visitor Market
Mesa is Arizona’s second-largest city in Metro Phoenix and the 37th-largest city in the nation. Led by Visit Mesa, the City of Mesa’s tourism economy is intentionally diverse, attracting leisure travelers, sports families, meeting attendees, and regional visitors. That diversity matters because it sustains demand for lodging, dining, retail, and entertainment across seasons and visitor segments.
Demand you can measure: Mesa welcomed 1.1 million overnight visitors and generated $749 million in direct travel spending in FY 24/25, with an average stay of 4.3 days.
Drivers that operate year-round: Tourism in Mesa is supported by sports, spring training, arts and culture, outdoor recreation, and family attractions rather than a single seasonal draw. Arizona Athletic Grounds alone attracts about 2.8 million visitors annually.
Access and capacity to expand: Mesa combines a population of 523,220, a 1.3 million workforce within 30 minutes, record air traffic at Mesa Gateway Airport, and an existing hotel base with additional rooms under construction.
By the Numbers
1.1M
overnight Mesa visitors
– Source: Visit Mesa FY24/25 Annual Report
5,690
hospitality jobs supported
– Source: Visit Mesa FY24/25 Annual Report
4.3 days
average stay
– Source: Visit Mesa FY24/25 Annual Report
$120.39
average daily rate
– Source: Visit Mesa FY24/25 Annual Report
Best Western
Cambria
Courtyard
Delta
Four Points
Hilton
Holiday Inn
Hyatt
La Quinta
Marriott
Sheraton
SpringHill Suites
Tempo by Hilton
Wyndham
Major Drivers of Overnight Stays and Visitor Spending
Mesa’s tourism base is anchored by destinations with clear lodging and consumer spillover.
Arizona Athletic Grounds is one of the nation’s premier multi-sport destinations, spanning 280 acres and attracting about 2.8 million visitors annually through tournaments, leagues, and special events.
MLB Spring Training gives Mesa two strong baseball anchors. In 2026, The Chicago Cubs (Sloan Park) drew more than 240,000 attendees and the Athletics (Hohokam Stadium) drew nearly 98,000.
Cannon Beach adds a distinct surf, dining, entertainment, and recreation destination that broadens Mesa’s visitor mix.
Mesa Arts Center, idea Museum, and the Arizona Museum of Natural History add additional year-round family and cultural visitation.
Skyline Aquatic Center draws athletes and families from across Arizona and the Southwest with year-round swim and dive competitions.
Events That Drive Recurring Visitation
Mesa’s event calendar creates repeat visitation beyond its permanent attractions, with Arizona Celebration of Freedom drawing 30,000+ attendees, Asian Festival 20,000+, Dia de los Muertos Festival 30,000+, Merry Main Street 190,000+, Mesa Music Festival 15,000, Mesa Marathon 10,000+, and multiple Arizona Athletic Grounds tournaments ranging from 18,000 to 100,000+ attendees. Chicago Cubs and Athletics spring training adds 338,000+ total attendees.
Established Hospitality with Room to Grow
Mesa already has a substantial hospitality base, with 64 hotels, 5,400 rooms, and many additional rooms under construction. National hotel brands already in market include Hilton, Delta, Marriott, Sheraton, Hyatt, Wyndham, La Quinta, Four Points, Holiday Inn, Courtyard, and Best Western, with Tempo by Hilton, Cambria, and SpringHill Suites coming soon.
The Mesa Convention Center adds 19,000 square feet of exhibit space, 19,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, and 15 meeting rooms, helping support group and event-related demand.
A Strong Fit for Development Opportunities
Mesa is well positioned for hotel developers, retail companies, commercial brokers, and site selectors looking for a market supported by both visitor spending and regional population. The strongest opportunities are in lodging, destination dining, experiential retail, and entertainment concepts that benefit from sports tourism, events, and airport accessibility.
Mesa Gateway Airport serves approximately 45+ U.S. locations and reached two million passengers in 2025. Falcon Field Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport further strengthen access to Mesa for visitors, businesses, and event travel.
Available Properties / Development Opportunities
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