Western Kentucky, or the Western Waterlands Region, showed the largest increase in tourism revenue in the state between 2016 and 2017, according to data released Monday by the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.
State tourism officials report the tourism and travel industry contributed over $15 billion to Kentucky’s economy in 2017, with direct expenditures accounting for over $9.5 billion of this total, an increase of 3.8 percent since 2016.
In Christian County, the data shows total expenditures for 2016 was more than $144 million dollars, which increased to over $149 million dollars in 2017. Christian County Visitors Bureau Executive Director Cheryl Cook tells the News Edge they were excited to see the tourism numbers.
right-click to download mp3She says the Solar Eclipse helped increase tourism in the county last year.
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Cook notes they have also developed a lot of other great events over the last year or so to increase tourism.
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She says they hope that Christian County continues to grow in the future.
Cadiz-Trigg County Tourism Executive Director Bill Stevens also says they are excited to see the increase in tourism expenditures in the county.
Meanwhile, Trigg County also showed an increase of more than $6.5 million dollars in total expenditures from 2016 to 2017 .
Stevens says they are very pleased with the tourism numbers.
Overall, travel expenditures in the Western Waterlands Region increased by 6.4 percent from 2016 to 2017 and employed 11,950 people in the travel and tourism industry in 2017.
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