Missouri tourism spending tops $16B for first time

With one of the state’s most-visited tourist attractions as a backdrop, Gov. Jay Nixon announced record tourism activity in Missouri during fiscal 2016.

At Silver Dollar City yesterday, Nixon said Missouri recorded 41.7 million annual visitors, a 3.2 percent increase from the record 40.4 million in fiscal 2015. The increased traffic grew economic impact of the tourism industry 3.8 percent to $16.5 billion in fiscal 2016, ending June 30, according to a news release.

“Visitors to our state strengthen local communities and support hundreds of thousands of jobs, resulting in a multibillion [dollar] industry here in Missouri,” Nixon said in the release. “From the great outdoors, to bustling metropolises, to unique getaways in between, there’s something for everyone in Missouri.”

Nixon cited data from a report by Tourism Economics, a division of Oxford Economics. (Read the report here.) Additionally, tourism-related spending in Missouri increased 5.6 percent to $13.1 billion in fiscal 2016, according to the Missouri Department of Revenue. Direct tourism-related employment grew 3.6 percent to 307,937 jobs, according to the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Other findings in the Tourism Economics report on fiscal 2016:
• Average spending per visitor was $98 a day.
• Tourist spending generated $1.4 billion in local and state tax revenues.
• About 8.3 percent, or 1 in 12, of all jobs in the state were in tourism-related industries.
• Nearly two-thirds of visitors stayed overnight and 86 percent came for leisure.
• Most visitors came in fall, 27 percent, followed by spring, 26 percent; summer, 24 percent; and winter, 23 percent.

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