MONTGOMERY – Travelers spent $210 million and were responsible for 2,532 jobs last year in Lauderdale County, according to a report conducted for the Alabama Tourism Department. This represents a 6.2% increase in traveler spending on hotels, restaurants, shopping and transportation.
Estimates show that statewide the tourism industry grew by 7.3% with more than 24 million visitors spending $11.8 billion last year according to the report conducted by Auburn University
Montgomery.
Robert Bentley
“Alabama offers tourists many areas of our state to enjoy,” Governor Robert Bentley said. “The tourism numbers for 2014 show that Alabama welcomes many people to our state. Money spent on travel creates jobs, grows local economies and generates needed tax revenues. Travel spending in Alabama has increased by 79% over the previous 13 years and that is good news for our tourism industry.”
The top five counties with the largest travel-related expenditures are: Baldwin County with $3.5 billion in travel-related spending, Jefferson County was second with $1.7 billion, Madison County was third with $1.08 billion, Mobile County ranked fourth with $988 million and Montgomery County was fifth with $723 million.
Without the dollars collected by the tourism industry each household in the state would end up paying almost $400 in additional taxes according to the report developed by economist Dr. Keivan Deravi.
The complete state tourism economic impact report will be available on April 17 at www.tourism.alabama.gov.
