WorldPride wrapped up in June; officials are working on an economic impact report that could be released later this month. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
Destination D.C., a nonprofit organization that promotes and keeps track of tourism and special events in the nation’s capital, says it is preparing an economic impact report on WorldPride D.C. that is expected to determine the number of visitors that attended related events.
Although well over 100 events took place during the official WorldPride D.C. 2025 schedule from May 17 through June 8, observers believe the largest number of visitors from other countries and from throughout the U.S. came during the last week, when the WorldPride Parade and the two-day street festival on Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol took place.
“WorldPride was an incredible celebration that honored and advocated for the global LGBTQ+ community,” Kyle Deckelbaun, Destination D.C.’s senior manager for Domestic Media Relations, told the Washington Blade earlier this month.
“Early indicators point to a successful event, but numbers are not fully in yet,” he said. “Capital Pride, Destination D.C. and partners are still gathering data across all the events of WorldPride. The full economic impact report will take some time.”
He told the Blade the economic impact report would take at least two months to complete, which, if completed on time, would be released sometime in August.
In mentioning Capital Pride, Deckelbaum was referring to the Capital Pride Alliance, the D.C. based group that played the lead role in organizing World Pride D.C.
Ryan Bos, the group’s executive director, told the Washington Blade this week Capital Pride Alliance will not be releasing its own attendance figures until after the economic impact report is released.
Destination D.C. reported at the end of May that its latest figures as of May 21showed that D.C. hotel bookings for the World Pride opening ceremony for the weekend of May 30-June 1, and for the closing ceremony weekend of June 6-8, were down by 3 percent compared to the same two weekends in 2024.
Some D.C. government officials, including Mayor Muriel Bowser, whose office provided D.C. agency support for WorldPride events, had predicted back in January that as many as three million visitors would turn out for WorldPride.
But shortly after President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20 and began putting in place policies considered hostile to countries in Europe, Latin America, and Canada, including proposed tariffs, news began to surface that many potential visitors from foreign countries, including potential LGBTQ visitors, were choosing not to come to the U.S.
Trump’s statements and policies in opposition to the rights of LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, also played a role in alienating potential LGBTQ visitors to the U.S. for WorldPride. Several European countries issued warnings that LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, could be subjected to possible danger if they were to travel to the U.S.
Destination D.C. officials have said hotel bookings are not the only indicator of how many people attend a large event like WorldPride. They have said they will look into a wide variety of other factors to determine WorldPride attendance in their economic impact report.
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