DeKalb County recorded the third highest Travel-Related Expenditures in the Upper Cumberland Region in 2008, according to recently released figures from the U.S. Travel Association.
The report shows that travel-related expenditures in DeKalb County were $35.46 million in 2008.
This reflects a $1.1 million (3.2%) increase over the previous year’s figure of $34.36 million.
DeKalb County also experienced an increase in each of the report’s other four categories; travel related employment 280, up by 1.1% over 2007; payroll $7.2 million, up by 1.2%; local taxes $4.6 million, a 4% increase; and state taxes collected in DeKalb County $1.9 million, up by 2.5% over 2007. The tax relief per household in DeKalb County due to tourism is $747, determined by dividing the total sales tax figure by the number of households.
Henry Bowman, Senior Analyst for the Upper Cumberland Development District says these numbers reflect the economic impact that Center Hill Lake has on DeKalb County. ” Within the fourteen county region, DeKalb County is number three. It was surpassed only by Cumberland (with travel-related expenditures of $94.17 million) and Putnam ($99.78) which are much larger counties and who have the benefit of having the Interstate go through them. This high showing in DeKalb County is undoubtedly directly related to the presence of Center Hill Lake and all the tourist businesses associated with those developments here. They estimate a payroll in excess of seven million dollars and almost three hundred jobs associated with the tourism industry in DeKalb County so it’s quite a significant impact.’
Bowman says these statistics are compiled by the U.S. Travel Data Center. “They do it on a contract basis with the folks at the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. The department contracts with these people to generate these numbers. They start with a national kind of aggregate number and sort of step that down to the state level, and then down to a local level. They use things like retail sales at restaurants, hotel-motel expenditures, and various things they build into the model. They gather the basic data from the state and local level and at the Tennessee Department of Revenue based on the sales tax collections.”
2008 Travel-Related Expenditures for the other counties in the Upper Cumberland Region are as follows;
Warren- $22.18 million
White- $17.19 million
Fentress- $11.30 million
Smith- $8.91 million
Van Buren- $7.99 million
Overton- $7.23 million
Pickett- $6.68 million
Clay- $6.69 million
Macon- $6.27 million
Cannon- $3.54 million
Jackson- $2.07 million
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