Tourism By Numbers Part II: The Four Categories of Tourism

OK, I highly encourage you to read this carefully. This might be the most important chunk of information for any economic developer with the charge of developing a tourism strategy as part of their economic development plan.

Tourism dollars are long thought to roll into a community via people visiting the community from somewhere else. As I pointed out in my former post "Committing an Act of Tourism", people don't necessarily have to visit your community from hundreds of miles away to be considered tourists. They can travel a few miles into your town to enjoy a bluegrass concert or even see a movie. They're still dropping their money off and eventually leaving to go home. Right?

Well, what about the folks that live in your community? They take their cash and spend it in other communities too. That's a bleeding wound that certainly needs some attention.

Tourism can be broken down into four distinct categories, each one delivering a different level of tourism activity and economic impact. They are:

1. End Destination describes an event, community or attraction to which tourists travel, specifically, to experience and enjoy.

2. Intermediate Destination provides opportunities for the community to serve as an intermediate tourist destination.

Many people travel to various destinations and must travel through or near the community. By providing opportunities for them to spend disposable money in the community, the community becomes an intermediate tourist destination.

3. Immediate Destination tourism provides opportunities for neighboring residents (people who live within 50 miles outside of the community) to spend disposable money in the community.

4. Tourism Retention provides opportunities for local residents to spend disposable money in their own community.

When describing actual tourism destinations, it is important to realize that any one community or attraction can serve as all four categories. Take Las Vegas, for example. For many vacationers, Sin City is their End Destination. For others, it serves as an Intermediate Destination. It’s a one-night stopover on their way to Disneyland or the Grand Canyon. For others, Vegas is an Immediate Tourism destination. For the people from the nearby city of Henderson, the trip into “the city” can include lots of entertainment but, for them, will not require a hotel room. And finally, residents of Las Vegas are constantly tempted with special events and new attractions that will capture their hard-earned dollars. This is a trick performed by City of Las Vegas, and County of Clark, that prevents the tourism cash from flowing to other communities.

While you may not have any hotels, you can still capture those tourism dollars by figuring out a way to attract people from the surrounding area for a few hours. And you can certainly retain a few of the dollars from your own citizens itching to spend them out of town. You just need to give them some good options. Doesn't have to be fancy. Just worth staying home and checking it out.