Story by Lisa Burke - North Platte/Lincoln County Visitors Bureau
(North Platte, Nebraska, May 7, 2021) – The National Travel and Tourism events hosted this week highlight the impact that visitor spending has on our local economy. In Lincoln County over $105 million is generated each year in total travel & tourism spending, supporting 1,490 with a payroll of $26.4 million and $6.3 million in local and state tax revenue. Approximately 7.4% of all jobs in Lincoln County are sustained by travel and tourism spending - nearly 1-in-13 jobs.
Sports events are a growing dynamic that can propel a community to economic prosperity. Nationally in 2019 sports tourism generated $103.3 billion in spending, according to the State of the Sports Tourism Industry Report in America. The survey found that in 2019, nearly 180 million people traveled to a U.S. sporting event, either as a spectator or a participant. The sports tourism industry generated nearly 740,000 jobs in America over the year. The Visitors Bureau has shown that North Platte can be the connecting point in central Nebraska for Denver and Omaha sports teams which don’t have the budget to travel to each other, but they will meet in the middle in North Platte to compete.
The Advisory Committee of the North Platte / Lincoln County Visitors Bureau has one objective in mind when recommending grant funding for various projects to the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners – will the project increase overnight stays in the lodging facilities of Lincoln County? This focus means that at times new and expanded events and facilities are given more favorable consideration than existing events and maintenance projects to existing facilities for both promotion and improvement funding.
The Advisory Committee has been very conservative with its recommendations to the County Commissioners with regards to the 2% improvement fund lodging tax receipts and have built up a reserve with the possibility of a big project that will have a large impact on local tourism in mind. The Visitors Bureau and the County Commissioners have developed a process for creating a multi-year commitment of lodging tax receipts to a single project. While the Advisory Committee is charged with exploring and evaluating new tourism projects, when this due diligence is completed, a recommendation for the commitment of lodging tax receipts will be made to the County Commissioners to make a final decision.
The Visitors Bureau has been aggressively seeking ways to improve our local venues to create the capability of hosting large multi-state and national events to increase sports tourism to our area. Increased capacity in our venues will also be available for local programming during the week and will bring in welcome new competition for local teams, creating a positive impact for our community as well as our economy.
As was indicated in Wednesday’s Excellence in Tourism award presented to the D & N Event Center, the facility is a valuable partner with the Visitors Bureau in bringing in major sporting events that have a significant impact on the area economy. The planned expansion has the potential to be the size and type of facility that would make it possible for North Platte to attract large multi-state and national events.
As the expansion of the D & N Event Center proceeds, the Visitors Bureau will encourage the organization to submit an intent to apply letter for the Improvement Fund grant cycle. The deadline for intent to apply letters is July 1, with a final application deadline of September 30. The Advisory Committee will hear presentations, weighing the impact of each project on overnight lodging and make a recommendation for funding to the County Commissioners.