Overton County has been working on their tourist dollars and it is paying off. As discussed at the County Commission meeting Overton County is no longer in the “At Risk” category in terms of its economy and has entered the “transitional” category and a good part of that is due to tourism dollars.
In 2022 the spending trends is at 7.3 million dollars which is up seven percent from 2021 and 44 percent from 2020. In 2022 tourist spent 2.49 million dollars on accommodations which is up 11 percent from 2021. They spent 2.17 million dollars on transportation up eight percent. They spent 1.61 million dollars on food and beverages which up one percent from the previous year. And approximately $520,000 in retail which is up three percent from the previous year.
In 2022 visitors to Overton County generated $800,000 in state and local taxes which equals about $92 in tax savings for every household.
The trend in Overton County is also mirrored by the state. The state of Tennessee is ranked number 11 in the state for overall tourism. The spending trends for the state for 2022 is 28.9 billion dollars which is up 19 percent from 2021 and up 63 percent from 2020. Visitors spent 7,814 million dollars on food and beverage which is up 13.2 percent from precent previous years. They spent 6,312 million dollars on transportation which is up 18 percent. 4,509 million dollars was spent on recreation up 29.9 percent. Accommodations is up 27.8 percent with visitors spending 7,044 million dollars. Finally, retail is up 6.6 percent with visitors spending 3,175 million dollars across all 95 counties in Tennessee.
In 2022 visitors generated 2.9 billion dollars in state and local taxes which equals $1,103 in tax savings per household
All the information can be found on Tennessee Tourist Development website.
