Carroll County tourism dollars/jobs up in new state report
In what has been almost a decade-long trend, a new report issued by the state shows big increases in the amount of money spent by visitors in Carroll County last year over the previous year.
The state’s just-released annual Economic Impact of Tourism on GA Counties report shows tourists visiting Carroll County spent nearly $151 million here in 2015. This is a 9% increase over 2014, which was itself an 8% increase over the previous year. Tourism spending also created or supported 1310 jobs in Carroll last year, up from 1257 the previous year.
“These numbers are great news for our community,” said Jonathan Dorsey, Executive Director of the Carrollton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Carrollton and Carroll County’s official destination marketing organization. “Each one of those dollars visitors spent in our county means more jobs for our people, more earnings, a bigger bottom line for our businesses and more revenues to fund vital services and infrastructure improvements in our community. Whether you are in a hospitality related business or not, we all see a better quality of living thanks to tourism.”
Here’s the breakdown:
Carroll County in 2015
$150.98 million in overall tourism spending (last year it was $143 million, 9.4 percent growth)
Tourism created/supported 1310 jobs (1257 last year)
Tourism generated $10.38 million in state and local taxes ($9.4 million last year)
Which meant about $231 in tax relief for each Carroll County household as a result of the taxes generated by direct travel spending ($210 last year)
“The CVB is proud of the central role we have in the marketing of our community as a destination,” said Dorsey, “but these exciting numbers are the result of constant partnership and cooperative effort among agencies and individuals across the county and with the state tourism folks as well. We work every day to bolster and promote the efforts of our tourism partners such as the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Carrollton, Carroll County, the Carrollton, Bowdon and Villa Rica Main Street programs, Villa Rica Tourism, UWG, our great parks, shops, attractions, hotels and restaurants… too big a list to include here. Every ticket sold, every park pass paid, every night spent, every plate or drink sold – all contributed greatly to these numbers. It is truly a countywide achievement earned by countywide effort.”
Press Release from Jonathan Dorsey at CVB
