Business is booming in Kentucky's tourism industry, which grew by 4.4 percent in 2014, according to an annual survey by the Kentucky Department of Travel and Tourism.
The survey examines the expenditure, employment and tax impacts generated by the state tourism and travel industry — and reveals plenty of good news for both Boyle County and the commonwealth as a whole, according to a press release from the Danville-Boyle County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
According to the report, Boyle County saw nearly $80 million in total expenditures during 2014, a $1.4 million decrease from the previous year. Though this dip in tourism spending might indicate a slow-down at first glance, Laura Negron, director of research at the Tourism Arts and Heritage Cabinet, explains the numbers in the context of several years of record growth.
"There is a small margin of error in any report such as this. So, while expenditures were down slightly, we would consider that amount of a decrease to be flat rather than down," she says. "Also, looking at previous years' growth, which has been pretty significant over the last several years, it's not unusual to see a year where numbers level out."
Fortunately, recent developments in Boyle County ensure that the next few years should see another rise in tourism expenditures.
"We've experienced record room tax revenues again this past year," says Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Jennifer Kirchner. "In addition, a new hotel in our county is slated to open in the spring of 2016. Both are good indicators of the bright future ahead for tourism in Boyle County."
​Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site, one of several local tourist attractions surveyed as a way to gauge tourist activity and spending for Boyle County, often experiences peaks and valleys in park attendance and revenue. Joni House of Perryville Battlefield explains that tourism activity often varies from year to year in this way.
"Our 150th anniversary attracted thousands of visitors from across the nation and the world. ... 2012 was our year," she says. "Numbers were not down so much in 2013, but returned to normal. We will again be having a large re-enactment in 2016 and expect our visitation and revenue increases to be significant for the local community as well as the entire region."
Despite these fluctuations, local attractions continue to flourish. Pioneer Playhouse reported a 7 percent increase in attendance over last year, and the Great American Dollhouse Museum reported a 17 percent increase. In addition, the Hampton Inn reported a 15 percent increase in revenues, indicating there are plenty of visitors to the area.
Boyle County is located within one of the eight tourism regions that registered gains for 2014; the "Bluegrass, Horses, Bourbon and Boone" region, of which the county is part, witnessed a gain of 3.9 percent, close behind the state's 4.4 percent. According to the study, direct expenditures in the Bluegrass, Horses, Bourbon and Boone region supported 25,950 jobs.
"The tourism industry supports a huge network of local jobs," Kirchner says, "not just the employees working in hotels and tourist attractions, but also those who staff the gas stations, restaurants, retail establishments and all the other related services that visitors use while visiting a certain area. We're excited to see our industry continuing to perform strongly to support our local economy."
The survey was produced for the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet by Certec Inc. of Versailles. More details about the tourism economic impact study are available at
http://www.kentuckytourism.com/industry/research.aspx.
