Uncle Dave Macon Days is one local event htat brings in more than 100,000 tourist annually.
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Tourism is big business in the state of Tennessee and Rutherford County.
Over the past few years, it has grown to a more than $200 million industry locally, bringing jobs and paychecks along with all the visitors.
“It’s been a tough year for everyone, but Tennessee tourism has actually fared very well, especially relative to our competitive states,” Commissioner Susan Whitaker told members of the Senate Environment and Conservation Committee Tuesday.
Tennessee’s growing tourism market is in the Top 10 nationally now and was fueled by domestic travel, which has grown as the economy has faltered.
On the local level, Rutherford County is the ninth most visited county in the state and the third most in Middle Tennessee.
“It’s really done a lot to keep us in better shape than most. We have been able to keep our tourism up and revenue up with hospitality and lodging taxes,” explained Mona Herring, director of the Rutherford County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau has done its best to keep the visitors coming by fighting to keep the TSSAA Spring Fling here, as well as bring other state and regional events to the county.
So far the fighting has paid off.
In 2008 visitors to the county added more than $240 million to the local economy, according to the U.S. Travel Data Center’s Economic Impact report.
And all signs point to a good year in 2010 as well.
Rutherford County saw a 1.3 percent increase over 2007 and Herring expects another good year in 2010 with “all the pieces are falling together” in the county, she said.
Those pieces center on the Embassy Suites, which has packed the convention center and is next to the largest open-air retail center in the state, she said.
“We’ve never had this much meeting space to sale and it’s really helped us bring these groups into town,” Herring said.
The convention center is bringing many state associations to Murfreesboro, instead of other cities because of its central location, she said.
At the end of February, the Tennessee National Guard will hold its annual meeting at the convention center, bringing 1,000 guardsmen to town.
The Tennessee National Guard has met in Nashville for 30 years, but decided to change venues this year, Herring said.
Along with the new conventions and events, Rutherford County will see Spring Fling, which will bring 35,000 high school athletes, coaches and families to town for the TSSAA’s annual championship, and Uncle Dave Macon Days, which brings more than 100,000 to Murfreesboro every summer.
One of the biggest groups coming to town is the US Youth Soccer Championship. In June 2011, more than 10,000 young soccer players, their families and coaches will descend upon the ‘Boro for their annual regional tournament.
“The economic impact alone will be over $8 million,” said Craig Long, vice president of youth-competitive for Tennessee State Soccer Association, adding the city’s Siegel Soccer Complex is an excellent site for the weeklong tournament.
All these visitors, plus those that visit the Stones River National Battlefield, Sam Davis Home and other heritage tourism attraction, paid $5.1 million in sales and hospitality taxes in 2008.
These increased sales created 2,130 jobs with a payroll of $41,300,000.
The tourist spending in Rutherford County in 2008 represents a 1.3 percent increase over 2007 and means we’re “inching up on Williamson County” to take the No. 8 spot on the Top 10 tourist counties in Tennessee list, Herring said.
“Being that we were in the economic challenges that we were I feel good that we had an increase,” she said.
And with the economy recovering, more people will come to the county, creating even more local jobs.
Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com. |
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