Published: July 12, 2008 09:21 pm      

County remains a hot spot for tourism

DANVILLE — Vermilion County continues to rank in the top 25 percent in Illinois in visitor expenditures, coming in at 24 out of 102 counties.

And it’s the national events, such as the National Powwow 14 that ended Saturday at the Vermilion County Fairgrounds, which help draw tourists — and their money — to the county.

Staff at Danville area hotels and restaurants said they had a busy week when the powwow was in town.

“Yes, we’ve been pretty busy this week,” said Oraida Munoz, night manager at the Big Boy Restaurant on Lynch Road.

Carrie McNew, guest services agent at the Sleep Inn, also on Lynch Road, said national events — such as the powwow and the National Junior College Athletic Association’s basketball tournament in March — “always help” keep the rooms filled at the hotel.

“We were sold out earlier this week, and now we have one or two rooms left, but they’re filling up fast,” she said Friday night.

“We have a lot of corporate (guests) stay here, too,” she said.

Last week, the Danville Area Convention and Visitors’ Bureau released the results of an annual study completed by the Travel Industry Association of America.

According to the study, visitors spent $70.55 million in Vermilion County, an increase over the previous year of 4.3 percent. Local tax receipts attributed to tourism set a record of $1.68 million, surpassing the previous year by 4.4 percent. A payroll of $12.75 million surpassed the previous year by 1.1 percent.

“The Travel Association America study is done for each county in Illinois,” said Jeanie Cooke, executive director of the DACVB.

“It is the only study done yearly over an extended number years using the same model, so we have a fair growth comparison and an excellent year-by-year benchmark.

“We know, for example, that over the last 10 years, visitor expenditures have grown from $50.02 million to the current $70.55 million.

“This increase speaks very well for our hospitality community, local government officials and the many area citizens who support the industry by lending their time and expertise to ‘Bring It Home.’”

This new Travel Industry Association study, when broken down by county, uses domestic travel only.

Its model was not developed specifically for Illinois, but is rather a nationwide study using, for each county, data from sources such as the U.S. Department of Commerce, Smith Travel Research, Illinois Department of Labor, Office of Employment Security, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Labor Statistics and others to provide consistent reports regarding the economic impact of tourism.