Here are some staggering tourism benefits to a small town in an article written by David Allred. In this study, the town has a population of 16,000.
***
This town is located at the crossroads of a major north/south interstate and an east/west highway with combined daily traffic counts approaching 70,000 vehicles. With 12 hotels (roughly 600 available rooms) spread across 3 major highways, less than 1% of the travelers in those vehicles need to decide to spend one night to generate conservatively over $20 million per year in hospitality-related revenue.
***
In addition to this direct economic input, this spending contributes at least another $3,000,000 in direct local sales and lodging tax revenue. And the entire ecosystem that has grown up to serve this local hospitality “industry” would directly employ roughly 160 people. These economic impact calculations can be arrived at based on reputable and readily available data sources and can lead to determining another important benefit to the local community that is often promoted - estimated annual local tax savings of $400 to $600 per household.
***
Tourism Nicola Valley, Experience Nicola Valley and Experience Merritt are your award-winning tourism group leading the tourism charge.