Tourism generates $13.46 Million in economic impact for Brownsville and Haywood County

In 2011, tourism generated $13.46 million in economic impact for Brownsville and Haywood County, Tenn.  This is a 4 percent increase over the previous year and includes $1.3 million in local and state tax revenue. Haywood County ranks fifth in Southwest Tennessee for direct tourism expenditures.

“From our fire and safety protection to our public education system, our community relies on tourism,” said Sonia Outlaw-Clark, director of the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center. “Travel supports not only the 80 travel-dependent workers in Brownsville, it also brought in $580,000 in local sales tax revenues."

 With our location on Interstate 40, travel promotion is an important economic driver for Brownsville and Haywood County. Contributing to these figures is the more than $84,000 collected through the local hotel/motel tax. According to Clark, the hotel/motel tax collected in 2011-12 fiscal year was up .2 percent over the previous year. Visitors to the Delta Heritage Center also increased more than 4 percent during 2011.

"These numbers will continue to increase as we develop our tourism product and give visitors a reason to stay longer," explains Clark.

The 2011 tourism impact numbers were announced at the Governor's Tourism Conference held in Sevierville in late September. The economic impact for the state is a record $15.36 billion spent by visitors. The figures represented an increase of 8.7 percent from 2010. This is the first time the state has exceeded $15 billion. It was also the sixth consecutive year that tourism businesses generated more than a billion dollars in state and local sales tax revenue. For the second year in a row, all of Tennessee's 95 counties saw an increase in direct tourism expenditures.

The West Tennessee DeltaHeritage Center is the primary destination marketing organization for Brownsville.