The Visitor Industry continues to try to quantify the impact that Destination Marketing has upon the communities that are forward-thinking enough to invest in community sales and promotion. I guess we keep telling ourselves that, one of these days, one of the formulas will light a fuse under the decision makers that reject all the ones that have come before.
Here's a new one (at least for me)...and it comes from Bill Ward, a professor of applied economics and statistics at Clemson University. In a recent opinion piece in the Greenville News, he talks of the serendipitous impact of a business person visiting a community...and then deciding to relocate based upon that visit. We know that happens all the time. We just need to be better about quantifying it.
But, it's the "systematic" impact that has me thinking. Bill presents, for our consideration, the RHSE/PI Ratio (Restaurant and Hotel Service Expenditures as measured again Personal Income). In his analysis, destinations that invested more in tourism promotion have a higher RHSE/PI Ratio. And, while there are sure to be other factors that could cause the ratio to shift (such as more full-service hotels and less chain restaurants in each destination), I think he's on to something here.
What do you think?
"...destinations that invested more in tourism promotion have a higher RHSE/PI Ratio."
Love it!
Posted by: Lee | June 29, 2010 at 14:07