Calculating tourism's economic impact

From an interview with Randy Fiveash, director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism:
"We leverage data from trusted entities like the state Department of Labor, visitation numbers from industry partners, hotel data from Smith Travel Research and industry benchmarks from the likes of Longwoods International to supplement our findings. Of course, we're mindful of factors that contribute to the growth and success of any industry sector — and certainly for tourism, we have good weather seasons and bad weather seasons that can have an impact on visitation.

That's why our own marketing studies are so important for us - to be able to see how many people we are reaching are actually saying they visited, or plan to visit, as a result of what advertising they saw.

We've proven that with increased spending we can make a difference in increased economic impact to Connecticut and more jobs for Connecticut families."

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