The summer tourism season is upon us in Idaho, driving significant spending across the state. Employment within Leisure and Hospitality, and other supporting industries, are significant factors and central to tourist activity.
Tourism spending shows growth
Idaho’s tourism spending reveals progressive growth in the Leisure and Hospitality industry from 2015 to 2023, when Idaho Commerce first began collecting the data. This is shown in Figure 1. The majority of tourism spending was from dining at over $1.2 billion.
Other direct industry-supporting sectors like Retail and Transportation also shared this growth. Tourists in Idaho spent an estimated total of $4.3 billion in 2023, according to the latest report.1
The Arts, Entertainment and Recreation industry had an initial increase in consumer spending which overall has created an increase in economic activity. This has been the same in other related industries such as Accommodation and Food Service, Retail and Transportation.
This increase is shown in the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation industry where every dollar spent generates an additional $0.70 in related economic activity. 2 Targeted tourist activity, like visiting a state park, attending a golf tournament or ski trip, further supports revenue to other establishments like shuttle companies, hotels, restauranteurs and shop owners.
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