An editorial from The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Every state is competing for tourism dollars and working hard to bring visitors to enjoy their attractions. But some states get a better return on their investment than others, The Washington Post reported recently. Unfortunately, West Virginia is at the back of the pack on that measure.
The newspaper compared state tourism budgets with tourism revenue, and the state with the best rate of return was Indiana. The Hoosier state spent about $2.3 million on tourism promotion in 20122013 and had $8.3 billion in tourism revenue, yielding $3,635 in economic activity for every dollar spent, the newspaper reported. Ohio does well, too, with a $5 million tourism budget and $17 billion in revenue – about $3,400 per dollar spent. West Virginia, on the other hand, has a tourism budget of $7.7 million and revenues of $2.9 billion, for a yield of about $377 per dollar spent by the state – one of the lowest margins among states…
