The Economic Development Value of Tourism Speaks Volumes as Impact Numbers are Released for 2020
The travel & tourism industry is a vital part of the Quad Cities regional economy. Visitors and non-resident revenues generate significant economic benefits to households, businesses, and the public sector and represent a critical driver of the Quad Cities’ future. How critical? Even in 2020, tourism supported 8,000 jobs and produced a $958.76M total impact in the QC. This was down 21.5% year-over-year which underscores the value of tourism and its need for recovery.
Dave Herrell is president and CEO of Visit Quad Cities.
“Tourism and non-resident revenues produce positive bottom-line results for our regional economy,” said Dave Herrell, President and CEO, Visit Quad Cities. “Our destination’s ability to regain the momentum we had from 2019 is critical. Working closely with our state partners and Tourism Economics, we expected the sharp decline in 2020 but outperformed our forecast. Now, we need to continually align with our stakeholders as we move out of the downturn and increase the urgency for destination marketing if the QC is going to compete for business and leisure travel.”
These impacts from visitation result from overnight stays, day trippers, meetings, conventions, sporting events, and group tours.
To quantify the economic significance of tourism in Iowa and Illinois, the Iowa Tourism Office (a division of the Iowa Economic Development Authority) and Illinois Office of Tourism (a division of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity) have contracted with Tourism Economics, the leading authority on travel & tourism research, to prepare a comprehensive model detailing the far-reaching impacts from visitor spending. The results of these studies show the scope of the industry in terms of visitor spending and the total fiscal impact generated. County by county analysis is part of the Tourism Economics report which is issued by both states to its destination marketing partners.
Before 2020, a different economic model was used by both states to calculate tourism economic impact and the results used figures generated by the U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Impact Model (TEIM). The new data collected by both states takes a deeper dive into the economic impact of tourism by measuring domestic and international visitation and various impacts that affect the economy of a destination like the Quad Cities region. Tourism Economics will be used by both states along with the U.S. Travel Association moving forward to report the economic impact of tourism.
Visit Quad Cities is a member of U.S. Travel Association and uses their data along with other business intelligence such as Destination International’s Event Impact Calculator (EIC), STR, Inc., and DataFY to measure and analyze tourism performance in the market.
Quad Cities Regional Visitor Economy Summary
Category 2019 2020
Total Visitor Spending $1.22B $958.76M
Total Local Taxes Generated $74.79M $65.14M
Total State Taxes Generated $76.48M $62.87M
The impacts measured and recorded by Tourism Economics include:
- Direct Impact – refers to impacts on business sales, jobs, income, and taxes created directly from spending by visitors in a destination within a discreet group of tourism-related sectors (e.g., lodging, food & beverage, recreation, retail, and transportation).
- Indirect Impact – refers to impacts created from the purchase of goods and services used as inputs (e.g., food wholesalers, utilities, business services) into production by the directly affected tourism-related sectors (i.e., economic effects stemming from business-to-business purchases in the supply chain).
- Induced Impact – refers to impacts created from spending in the local economy by employees whose wages are generated directly or indirectly by visitor spending.
- Employment – refers to jobs directly and indirectly supported by visitor activity (includes part-time and seasonal work). One job is defined as one person working at least one hour per week for fifty weeks during the calendar year.
- Personal Income – refers to wages, salaries, proprietor income, and benefits supported by visitor spending.
- Value Added (GDP) – refers to the economic enhancement a company gives its products or services before offering them to customers.
- Local Taxes – refers to City and County taxes generated by visitor spending. This includes any local sales, income tax, bed tax, usage fees, licenses, and other revenues streams of local governmental authorities –from transportation to sanitation to general government.
- State Taxes – refers to State tax revenues generated by visitor spending. This will include sales, income tax, corporate tax, usage fees, and other assessments of state governments.
More than 300 leading companies, associations, and destinations work with Tourism Economics every year as a research partner. Their partner, Oxford Economics, is a leader in global forecasting and quantitative analysis. Tourism Economics worldwide client base comprises more than 1,500 international corporations, financial institutions, government organizations, and universities. Tourism Economics operates out of regional headquarters in Philadelphia and Oxford with offices in Belfast, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Frankfurt, London, and Ontario.
