By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Earlier this month was National Travel and Tourism Week, and Kansas Tourism released information on how visitor spending creates direct economic value to local communities.
If a baseball or softball team comes to town for a three-day
tournament, the total direct spending of one team is $8,700 in your community
with players, coaches, fans, hotel rooms, meals and snacks. That’s just for one
team. Great Bend Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Christina Hayes referenced
there are some tournaments in Great Bend that have more than 60 teams, meaning well
over $500,000 for one tournament. Hayes said tourism dollars help lower taxes
in Barton County.
"I looked at the latest report for Barton County specifically, and we save $267 because of our tourism efforts," said Hayes.
According to Kansas Tourism, a traveler is worth $207 per day to Kansas. In
Great Bend, Hayes is working on one-stop tourism packages that will benefit
visitors.
"We'll do like a girls trip, family-fun trip, hunting trip and wine and beer adventures," said Hayes. "Tourists could buy a girls weekend package and it would be a one-stop shop. They would pay the hotel and everything else would be there."
Kansas Tourism stated a family of four making a three-day trip to Kansas will
spend an average of $854 in your community.