The Economic Impact of Travel in Minnesota, 2011
Release Date: Feb 05, 2013
The Economic Impact of Travel in Minnesota, 2011 describes and reports results from a study conducted for Explore Minnesota Tourism by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company. Results include 2011 travel volume in Minnesota, associated traveler spending; and travel-generated employment, income, taxes and GDP (value added).
Report: The Economic Impact of Travel in Minnesota, 2011
Some of the economic impact results included in this report are similar to metrics from other sources found elsewhere in the Research and Reports section of this website. Differences between similar metrics from different sources can be attributed to a variety of reasons. In some instances, primary data is provided directly to government offices by businesses, and then reported by the government offices. Examples of this include employment and wages by industry from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (i.e., BLS) and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (i.e., DEED), and sales and sales tax by industry from the Minnesota Department of Revenue (i.e., Revenue). In other instances, available data from various sources is utilized as input into computer models that generate economic impact results. This 2011 economic impact report includes examples of this, where results represent economic impacts (e.g., spending, employment, taxes) that are generated by an event or activity of interest – in this case, travel in Minnesota. When computer-modeled results are presented by industry, they typically only include the portion of each industry’s economic impact that was generated by the activity of interest – again in this case, travel in Minnesota. So for instance, when comparing industry-specific employment data from the 2011 economic impact report with industry-specific employment data from BLS, the employment data in the report will typically be lower than similar BLS employment data because it represents only the portion of employment in an industry that is generated by travel in Minnesota.
The 2011 economic impact report includes an estimate of 71 million travelers in Minnesota in 2011, which differs considerably from an estimate of 39 million included in an economic impact report by a different vendor that covered June 2007 through May 2008. The substantial difference can be attributed to methodological differences that led to a much higher number of travelers on day trips included in the 2011 estimate (40 million) than in the 2007-2008 estimate (9 million). The estimated number of overnight travelers was similar for the two studies – 31 million in the 2011 study and 30 million in the 2007-2008 study.
