| Chamber Chatter - July 22, 2010
A few weeks ago, in this space, we shared some information from the “Outlook for Oklahoma Travel in 2010,” and the effect tourism has on the economy. With two weekends’ worth of Independence Day celebrating, and this past weekend’s Second Chance Trade Days, we’ve had a first hand look at tourism’s effect.
Tourism as a boost to the economy is certainly not “new” news, as we find in this April 28, 1929 “The Town Doctor” article by A. D. Stone, and published by The Marlow Review. “KNOW THE VALUE OF YOUR TOURIST TRAFFIC. There has been a great deal written and said about the value of automobile tourists. Not all of it has been correct since much of it has been more or less guess work and the personal opinions of groups promoting highway routes and trails and publishers of books in which advertising is the main issue. In many cases the date given out is somewhat out of line, but be that as it may, the truth is nearer their figures than the realization on the part of most towns of what the actual value really is.”
“A check of automobile tourist traffic in practically every corner of the country shows an average of three and one-half persons per car; the average daily expenditure for not less than ten-day trips to be over $17.00 an average of 250 miles daily, covering seventeen cities and towns: and that less than 20 per cent of the traffic are ‘Tin Can Tourists’ – those who live in camps and travel in what might be termed second class.”
“Average expenditures will show: Gasoline, allowing 250 miles, 15 miles to gallon at 16¢, $2.75. Oil, average of 3 pints per day at 30¢ a quart, 45¢. Automobile incidentals including storage 50¢. Meals, bkf. 50¢, lunch 50¢, dinner $1.00, $7.00. Lodging average of $1.50 per person, $5.25. Incidentals $1.75. TOTAL, $17.00. This does not allow for unforeseen expenses, but does include possible tire and mechanical upkeep, tips, a soda or sandwich now and then, and the usual ‘Having a Swell Time’ to the folks back home.”
“On this basis, the potential cash value of each tourist car (a car more than 100 miles away from its home garage) is $1.04 to each of the towns through which it passes. There are few towns of 40,000 population, and many with less, that do not now have an average traffic of 25,000 cars per week (3572 per day or 223 per hour for 16 hours a day – less than two cars each way per minute) and motor traffic will increase yearly.”
“Twenty-five thousand tourist cars enroute [sic] spend $442,000 in seventeen towns per week, or $26,000 per town. A business house with an annual business equal to this would be something to talk about. Every town has a chance at this business. It may not be $3,715 per day, but one-fifth that much is something to go after.”
“The live business organization knows the amount of traffic that passes through the town the same as any live merchant knows the number of people that pass his store. No town or business can tell if they are getting their share of business to be had if they do not know them.”
“The cash value of tourist or motor traffic is great enough to warrant concerted action and expenditure of goodly sums to get it, but there is more! Twenty percent of the out-of-state motor traffic is in the market for, or can be sold, a new location. Good roads have widened the farmers’ range of marketing at a profit and have broadened opportunities for the employment of labor, but too few towns and cities have capitalized on it.”
Eighty-one years later, the dollar amounts, and items to spend money on may be different, but when you get right down to it, some things never change!
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