![\"Tourist](\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Montgomery-County-Ranks-Second-Highest-of-all-Tennessee-Counties-for-Tourism-Growth-480x320.jpg\" "\\"Tourist")
<\/a>Tourist Development Commissioner Mark Ezell, Visit Clarksville Sales Director Frances Manzitto, Governor Bill Lee and Visit Clarksville Executive Director Theresa Harrington at the Governor\u2019s announcement of the 2018 economic impact of travel on Tennessee. (Ed Rode)<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Travelers in Tennessee spend an estimated $60 million per day.<\/p>\n
\u201cTourism is Tennessee\u2019s second-largest industry,\u201d said Visit Clarksville Board of Directors Chairman Kyle Luther.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state\u2019s growth has outpaced the nation for several years and 2018 was no exception. Locally, all of the Visit Clarksville staff have worked hard to achieve and maintain strong growth. We are thrilled to see the culmination of our efforts and our robust contributions to the local and state economy,\u201d Luther stated.<\/p>\n
Data from the U.S. Travel Association report showed local tourism industry payroll increased to more than $48 million. Local tax revenues from tourism spending increased to $4.6 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis terrific news should not be surprising to anyone,\u201d said County Mayor Jim Durrett. \u201cAs we add venues and attractions to our community, people become more interested in what Montgomery County has to offer.”<\/p>\n
“The numbers show that investing in our community pays for itself and provides dividends in many ways. Also, our visitors bureau does an excellent job promoting Clarksville and Montgomery County. Tourists visit to see what we have and enjoy the community because of our amazing people,\u201d Mayor Durrett stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis increase in direct tourist spending is great news for our community,\u201d Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts said. \u201cThis shows that our investment in parks and facilities like the Wilma Rudolph Event Center, Liberty Park, Fort Defiance, Heritage Park and the Customs House Museum — to name just a few — is really paying off.”<\/p>\n
“The great work that goes into creating, maintaining and programming our recreation facilities does double duty by making our community more interesting for residents and by attracting a growing number of visitors,\u201d stated Mayor Pitts.<\/p>\n
Theresa Harrington, Visit Clarksville Executive Director, credits much of the growth to the hard work and dedication of her staff.<\/p>\n
[320left]\u201cMost of our marketing efforts happen outside of the community \u2013 recruiting sports events and group tours, and all of the advertising and public relations we do \u2013 people in Clarksville don\u2019t often see that, by design,\u201d Harrington says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long-term game, an investment. We might not see the results of things we do today for four or five years, or longer. But, we\u2019ve kept hammering away and been consistent in telling our story and showcasing our amenities and facilities to many different audiences. That has made the difference,\u201d stated Harrington.<\/p>\n
The top five highest growth counties for 2018 were:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Rhea County, $39.7 Million, 9.17% increase<\/li>\n
- Montgomery County, $244.7 Million, 9.12% increase<\/li>\n
- Sevier County, $2.45 Billion, 7.97% increase<\/li>\n
- Blount County, $407.8 Million, 7.91% increase<\/li>\n
- Cocke County, $50.9 Million, 7.44% increase<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u201cWe constantly hear from visitors — whether they\u2019re traveling for business, leisure or coming specifically to an event — how beautiful our city is,\u201d Harrington says. \u201cIt\u2019s something we who live here can take for granted if we\u2019re not careful. We can easily focus on what we don\u2019t have, instead of enjoying all the things we do have \u2013 and we have a lot to do and enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
About Visit Clarksville<\/h3>\n
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Tourism Commission was established by the State of Tennessee in 1979 to positively influences tourism in the Clarksville-Montgomery County area by promoting tourist attractions, hosting conventions, group tours and engaging in large-scale marketing efforts. In 2015, the organization adopted the Visit Clarksville brand.<\/p>\n
Visit Clarksville is governed by nine board of director members and is funded by a portion of the local hotel-motel tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Visitor Spending in Montgomery County Tops $244.7 Million in 2018 Clarksville, TN – Montgomery County saw the second-highest growth rate in tourism spending of all 95 Tennessee counties during 2018. Direct travel spending increased 9.12% over 2017, for a record-high of $244.7 million. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Department of Tourist Development Commissioner Mark Ezell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[33444,26915,512,1759,825,9063,1373,3787,10738,33894,160,10067,9072,2997,1758,14055,12682,1896,21767,33895,24551],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7bp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27616,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27615\/revisions\/27616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Visit](\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Visit-Clarksville.jpg\" "\\"Visit")
Clarksville, TN <\/strong>– Montgomery County saw the second-highest growth rate in tourism spending of all 95 Tennessee counties during 2018. Direct travel spending increased 9.12% over 2017, for a record-high of $244.7 million. <\/p>\n![\"Tourist](\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Montgomery-County-Ranks-Second-Highest-of-all-Tennessee-Counties-for-Tourism-Growth.jpg\" "\\"Tourist")
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