Michigan`s second largest industry finally will be tracked in metro Detroit through a monthly Tourism Barometer report launched…
Michigan`s second largest industry finally will be tracked in metro Detroit through a monthly Tourism Barometer report launched by the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.
This new report charts important tourism economic indicators in the tri-county area (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties), including airline passenger arrivals and departures, Detroit/Windsor tunnel crossings, number of taxi rides, hotel occupancy and daily room rates, and attractions attendance. The report also highlights tourism trends by providing a comparative analysis versus previous months and years.
Tourism contributes more than $10 billion to the state`s economy annually from visitor spending, yet there isn`t a Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) to measure its growth, said Larry Alexander, president and CEO of the DMCVB. We hope to raise the visibility and importance of tourism in our region as well as provide a useful tool to gauge the economic impact from month to month and year to year.
The barometer provides June tourism statistics, revealing that tourism is down significantly from a year ago due to national safety issues and a soft economy. The DMCVB says that these travel trends mirror the U.S. domestic travel outlook, but projects the downward trend will reverse itself in the second half of 2002.
In addition to providing statistics in the above-mentioned categories, the Tourism Barometer includes regular updates from the Tourism Economic Development Council (TEDC), the recently formed public and private partnership charged with spearheading tourism development in the region.
Tourism brings $4.6 billion in direct spending to metro Detroit annually and 16.4 million visitors, and now we can track those successes to better identify trends in this important industry, said Alexander.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
