KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If you boil it down to its simplest terms, $502 is what tourism means to the average household in the Kansas City area. That’s how much each household in Kansas City saves annually in taxes thanks to spending by visitors. That’s just one fact presented today from new tourism research by the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association (KCCVA) showing the economic impact and visitor profile of tourism in Kansas City. The studies were conducted by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company, and Reach Market Planning, LLC.

In 2008, Kansas City hosted a record 22.1 million visitors. Despite the recession, direct visitor spending increased two percent in 2008 to $2.68 billion, which resulted in an overall economic impact of $4.5 billion for the region. Kansas City tourism generated $140 million in state taxes and $184 million in local taxes last year, saving the average Kansas City household $502 in taxes in 2008. Nearly 45,000 jobs were sustained by visitors in 2008, accounting for $1.4 billion in total wages.

The study also offers insight into the impact of the downtown revitalization on tourism in Kansas City. Since 2005, when the downtown revitalization began, visitor spending has increased 18 percent from $2.27 billion to $2.68 billion in 2008.

“Visitors are responding to the major redevelopment that has taken place over the last few years,” said Rick Hughes, president of the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association. “Tourism is important to our economy because the money spent by visitors helps reduce taxes paid by local residents and provides local governments needed revenues to pave roads and fix sewers.”

The research also provides a look at how visitor spending is distributed across the metropolitan area. Of the $4.5 billion economic impact tourism had in the Kansas City area in 2008, Jackson County accounted for half of all tourism spending (50.2%) with $2.3 billion, followed by Platte County at $804 million (17.9%), Johnson County at $768 million (17.1%), Clay County at $511 million (11.4%) and Wyandotte County at $154 million (3.4%).

For a copy of the full studies, go to VisitKC.com/research. Among the key highlights of the research:

• In 2008, the Kansas City area hosted a record 22.1 million visitors, an increase of 0.5% over 2007 and 7% since 2005.
• A record 18.2 million leisure travelers visited Kansas City with 8.5 million staying overnight.
• Slightly more than half of all visitors (52%) came for a day trip, producing 11.6 million visits.
• Kansas City hosted 1.5 million overnight business travelers. Almost one-third (31.5%) came to Kansas City for a convention or trade show, higher than KC’s competitive set (27.5%).
• The average per person expenditure of an overnight business traveler to Kansas City was $260 per day compared with $120 per overnight leisure traveler per day.
• For overnight leisure visitors, the top five origin markets outside the immediate region were Wichita-Hutchinson (10%), St. Louis (8%), Springfield, Mo. (7%), Omaha (5%) and Topeka-Manhattan (4%).
  
  Average overnight leisure traveler
  Age - 43.5 years
  Party size - 2.79 persons
  Party makeup - 2.17 adults and 0.62 children
  Length of stay - 2.85 nights
  Daily spending (per person) - $120
  % that stay in hotels - 53%
  % that arrive by auto - 86%
  
  
  

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  Photo Credit:  Photos Courtesy of the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association

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