TRAVELERS BRING IN THE MONEY

Thousands of visitors flock into the Trail of Tears State Park each year.

The 3,307-acre-park, located about a dozen miles north of Cape Girardeau, offers camping, hiking, picnicking, boating, and swimming, and is named as a memorial to the Cherokee Indians.

In the past three years, more than a quarter-million visitors have made their way to the park, which offers a variety of programs during the summer.

The park, as well as other visitor attractions, have helped make Cape Girardeau County the top tourism draw in the River Heritage Region of Southeast Missouri.

The River Heritage Area includes a half-dozen counties.

Tourism and travel spending in the Show Me State topped $12.2 billion for the fiscal year, ended June 30.

"This is down slightly from the previous year's totals," said Robert Hain, Deputy Director of Division of Tourism.

This marks the first dip in tourism spending in a number of years.

Studies conducted for the Missouri Division of Tourism show the tourism and travel industry has been "on the grow" over the past few years, from $10.4 billion in 1995, $11.1 billion in 1996, and $12.3 billion in 1997.

The industry this year generated more than $525 million in state tax revenue and provided almost 200,000 jobs directly involved in the industry.

A study, conducted by the University of Missouri-Columbia Tourism Research and Development Center, also reveals the industry's impact on businesses not directly serving tourists.

This "ripple" effect was responsible for an additional 80,000 jobs and added another $6.06 billion to the state's economy. More than 10,000 manufacturing and 4,000 construction jobs were generated by the spending of tourists. And tourism stimulates other non-tourism industries such as agriculture, fishing, food processing, brewing and distilling.

Two tourism regions -- St. Louis and the Branson/Ozark Mountain area -- continue to account for more than 60 percent of the tourism income. Thirty-two percent of the economic impact dollars were spent in the St. Louis area, with 30 percent in the Branson/Ozark area. Throw in the 11 percent from Kansas city, and these three areas account for almost three-fours (73 percent) of tourism/travel dollars.

But every county in the state realized some benefits. The River Heritage Area, which includes a dozen Southeast Missouri Counties -- including Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Scott, Perry and Stoddard -- accounted attracted more than $160 million in tourism/travel spending, and provided jobs to more than 3,000 Southeast Missouri residents.

Other counties in the River Heritage Area are Dunklin, Madison, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve,

Tourism is the third largest industry in the United States, and second in Missouri. Nationally, tourism provides more than $430 billion to the U.S. economy, and six billion direct jobs.

Missouri offers a variety of visitor attractions, ranging from sports -- including professional baseball and football -- theme parks, zoos, historic sites and other activities.

The state has more than 2,000 accommodation facilities providing over 95,000 rooms; 455 campgrounds and 29,000 campsites; 86 state parks; and number of gambling operations, ranging from Caruthersville in the rural Bootheel are to St. Louis and Kansas City.

Cape Girardeau County receives big benefits from the tourism industry.

Tourism officials say a new definition has been established for tourists:

Until the 1996-97 fiscal year, one spending money on a tourist or recreational attraction was consider a tourist,

For the past two fiscal years, the tourist has been described in one of two ways: (1) a person who travels at least 50 miles from home to attend an attraction or activity, or (2) a person who stays overnight in the area of the attraction or activity.

Tourist shopping was the number one activity reported by travelers to the state in the latest fiscal year, 1998, accounting for 27 percent of the total. Shopping was followed by visits to historical places and museums, outdoor activities, and visits to theme/amusement parks.

The average local tourist spent $175 per trip in Missouri last year, while out-of-state tourists averaged $317 per trip.

Almost 70 percent of all U.S. visitors to Missouri originated from out of state, with the largest share of non-resident visitors from Illinois.

Missouri hosted more than 35 million visitors during the year, with 4.3 million from Illinois and 3.3 million from Kansas. Another big share of visitors (more than 2 million) came from Texas.

Although county totals were not available in the 1998 reports, a good 'guesstimate" for Cape Girardeau County is $40 million plus.

The historic old St. Vincent's Seminary, now owned by Southeast Missouri State University; Trail of Tears State Park; murals on both sides of the downtown river wall, and other areas; the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway are among visitors attractions in the Cape Girardeau.

Thousands of visitors attend large soccer tournaments, and annual arts and crafts fairs here. Riverboats bring as many as 3,000 to 4,000 visitors a year to Cape Girardeau.

Pemiscot County's tourism spending has tripled over the past three or four years, since the opening of the Aztar Riverboat Gambling Casino. In 1994, the total of tourism/travel spending was about 2.5 million. Last year's spending in the county topped the $8 million mark.