Following up on a story we ran earlier this week regarding Kentucky’s 2011 tourism economic impact numbers, here are a few other facts and figures that may be of interest, provided by the Cabinet for Tourism, Arts and Heritage:
- The tourism and travel industry contributed nearly $11.7 billion to Kentucky’s economy in 2011. Direct expenditures by tourists accounted for $7.4 billion of this total —an increase of 3.0 percent since 2010.
- The 2011 tourism industry generated over $1.224 billion in tax revenues to government – $1.066 billion to the state and $157.5 million locally. This is an increase from $1.188 billion in tax revenues in 2010.
- All nine tourism regions showed gains in revenues between 2010 and 2011. The largest increase occurred in Bluegrass, Blues & Barbeque Region. It increased by 9.3 percent between the two years.
- A total of 169,932 jobs in Kentucky resulted from the industry in 2011—up 674 jobs from 2010. Direct expenditures created 118,917 of these jobs.
- The tourism-generated jobs provided over $2.6 billion in wages to Kentucky workers—an increase of $76 million from 2010 wages.
