London. Paris. Amsterdam. Sydney. Richmond?
With more than 5.7 million people visiting the region annually, Richmond has become quite the hot spot for tourism, and more importantly, money spent by tourists, according to a new study.
A new economic impact study commissioned by the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau indicates that tourism spending in the Richmond Region has reached a substantial level in recent years and has proved to be a great boost for the local economy.
The tourism impact study, which was conducted by D.K. Shifflet & Associates and Global Insight, revealed that in 2006 travelers to the Richmond Region spent $1.84 billion on tourism-related products such as food and beverage, entertainment, shopping, lodging and transportation.
It should be no surprise to dining-happy Richmonders that food and beverage spending ranked first, accounting for 27 cents out of every dollar spent by visitors. Entertainment spending ranked second (23 cents out of every dollar) and shopping expenditures ranked third, accounting for 22 cents of every dollar. Lodging (16 cents out of every dollar) and transportation (11 cents out of every dollar) expenses closed out the study fourth and fifth, respectively.
More importantly, for every dollar spent, 76 cents stayed within the local economy.
And with tourism spending comes tourism jobs. The study says that Richmond tourism supported 25,990 jobs directly related to the travel industry and created $925 million in wages. That ranks travel and tourism eighth in Greater Richmond's primary industries, which employ 4.9 percent of the entire local labor force.
According to the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, the purpose of the study was to determine the economic benefits and tax impacts generated by visitor spending in the Richmond region in 2006. For the study, travelers were defined as those who made an overnight trip or traveled in excess of 50 miles for a day trip.