Tourist Season Goes Year Round in Kentucky
Beyond its ‘bourbonism’ boom, $14.5 billion hospitality sector grows by giving visitors a taste of the authentic
Courtesy of The Lane Report By Susan Gosselin
Continuing an especially good run in recent years, vibrant Kentucky tourism grew another 5 percent in 2016, the strongest expansion rate since 2005, according to Kentucky’s Tourism Arts and Heritage Cabinet. The economic impact hit $14.5 billion last year, when all nine of the state tourism regions experienced increases.
Rising global taste for and interest in bourbon has certainly helped spike the numbers. It’s driving a revival down old West Main Street in downtown Louisville as well as hotel construction there and elsewhere in the state.
Long mostly a seasonal industry busy in spring and summer, tourism-sector members are developing it into a year-round enterprise in Kentucky that generates $1.5 billion in tax revenue and supports 193,000 jobs – an important number that grew by 7,000 in the 2016 measure.
For more on this story: http://www.lanereport.com/81296/2017/10/tourist-season-goes-year-round-in-kentucky/