Celebrating Tourism Appreciation Week – May 2009

This past week we celebrated National Tourism Appreciation week – events were held all over – including the one on May 19th at the Broward Convention Center.

Belated congratulations to Nicki Grossman, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, who was named to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Travel and Tourism Advisory Council. The Travel and Tourism Advisory Council was developed last year (2008) to provide real-time, grassroots economic information to its Research Department. The council consists of approximately 12 members who are senior executives of tourism and tourism-related businesses and organizations in the Southeast, such as cruise lines, convention and visitor bureaus, entertainment companies, airports, hotels, and restaurants.

In recognition of Florida’s most important industry, tourism facts and figures were provided to the attendees to emphasize the economic impact to our State.

It’s not JUST those of us employed by the tourism industry that benefit. Visitors generate sales tax revenues that help pay for our schools, law enforcement, road improvements and many other public needs making the quality of life better for all our residents. It’s amazing how many people still don’t know this information.

Here are some of the stats for 2008 (Note: some state numbers are estimates):

Total visitors to Broward: 10.8 Million; to the State of Florida: 82.5 million;
People in Broward directly employed: 114,386; number in Florida: 1,007,000;
Visitor spending in Broward: $8.69 billion; State spending related to tourism: $65.2 billion
Total State Sales Tax Revenue from Tourism: $3.9 billion – that’s 21 percent of our total sales tax revenue in 2008 provided by Tourism!

For every $1 in tourism marketing, VISIT FLORIDA generated $58 in tourism spending and $3 in new sales tax collections. As they say, “Tourists, you gotta’ love em.”
The HSMAInsider (Julie Wernick