Published on : Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Last year, Louisiana welcomed a record of 47.1 million visitors, representing a growth of almost 500,000 over the 46.7 million visitors reported by DK Shifflet in 2016.
Those visitors had spent around $17.5 billion, or an average of $371 per person.
The travel and tourism sector churned out $1.8 billion in terms of state and local sales tax revenue. It was a major growth of 4.5 percent over the $1.7 billion in state and local sales tax revenue generated the year before.
This revenue shows a 37-to-1 return on investment of state funding.
The generation of tax revenue through travel and tourism spending saves each Louisiana household around $1,047 annually in taxes that would be required to maintain current services.
“Six consecutive years of record-breaking visitation and spending, more than 236,000 jobs, and a 37-to-1 return are all reasons to continue investing in tourism,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.
“By increasing our promotion of Louisiana as a place where you can feed your soul, we can attract more visitors to our state which in turn means more state and local tax revenue we can generate. It all starts with continuing to invest in the efforts to promote Louisiana as a desirable tourism destination.”
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