Image Credit: Tennessee Tourism / tn.gov
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
Tennessee once again claimed victory when it recently touted that visitors had spent $27.5 billion on tourism in the state in 2022.
Tennessee ranked 11th in the nation, according to the report.
But those numbers, presented by a marketing group called Tourism Economics and paid for by the United States Travel Association, revealed little about how the numbers were computed.
The marketing group, a subsidiary of another company named Oxford Economics, whose purpose is to conduct these reports for clients, has had its numbers consistently called into question by economists including J.C. Bradbury of Kennesaw State University.
“I don’t find analysis produced by Tourism Economics to be credible,” Bradbury said.
The economist has been critical of reporting that repeats the numbers without context. Last year, he said of the reported 2021 numbers that “I think it’s important to be skeptical of any for-hire economic impact report that is commissioned by a tourism agency that has an interest in showing a large impact from tourism.”
U.S. Travel presented the numbers as “preliminary” after stating that, in 2021, tourism brought $24.2 billion in spending and $2 billion in taxes to the state.
The report claimed that $1.8 billion in state sales tax was collected due to tourism from the 2022 spending.
Tennessee collected $13.4 billion in sales and use taxes overall in 2022.
Tourism Economics is the same group that was hired by the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp to present numbers to the fair board while the Nashville mayor’s office pushed for more than $100 million in public funding for significant changes at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, with the marketing group claiming the speedway has a $5.3 billion direct spending impact and an $8 billion “economic impact” on Davidson County.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
2 Responses
This is like the cops investigating themselves. They are almost always innocent or there are at least mitigating circumstances.
Seems to me more accurate information could be acquired from business tax filings with the tap of a few computer keys.