River Cities Business Journal: Tourism

River Cities Business Journal

The price of gasoline has fueled many changes in the past year. It has risen 37 percent from November of 2006 with no end to the skyrocketing cost in sight.

Mohave County and the River Cities area are heavily dependent on tourism and it is widely speculated that higher fuel prices are negatively impacting the number of visitors to the area.

Not only in this region, but in others around the nation, it is impossible to gauge the real impact of gas prices on tourism.

“It's difficult to distill that from other factors that influence people's trip decisions,” Kevin Bagger, statistics analyst for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said.”The challenge to that is it is difficult to find data to quantify that directly.”

THE LVCVA researches tourism statistics for Laughlin as well as Las Vegas and Bagger pointed out that you can't ask people who did not come to Laughlin why they are not there.

Those who are visiting the region may or may not have been influenced by fuel prices, but Bagger does not think that is a prime reason people consider when planning a vacation.

“For most travelers an increase of 50 cents or a dollar for gas translates to about $40 per trip - not enough to influence most travelers,” Bagger said. “It may be that they are compensating for it in other ways like spending less on other things or consolidating trips, but there is no way to quantify it.”

An informal survey at some fuel stops in Kingman near the I-40 and Highway 93 interchange yielded expected results.

The most common response was “We're here, aren't we?”

That only demonstrated that people who are travelling are doing so despite fuel prices. Those who are not travelling cannot be found to ask why.

Some places around the nation that are dependent on tourism are convinced fuel prices play a role in the number of visitors and are trying some unusual approaches.

In Missouri, the Branson Tourism Center is offering 20 cents off each gallon on every fillup at a local merchant to entice visitors.

In Tennessee, at Pigeon Forge on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for the second year in a row the resort town has a “Gas Patrol” that prowls the town looking for tourists to give $30 gasoline certificates to on a random basis.

The Circus, Circus casino in Las Vegas tried giving away a $25 gas coupon to guests that stayed more than one night

The state of Minnesota considered the rising prices a boon prior to summer. The thinking was that people would still want to vacation, but would be unlikely to take longer trips. So the state launched an “Explore Minnesota” campaign.

The campaign won an award from the Travel Industry Association, but no one knows if it actually succeeded at this point.

In the Tri-State region tourism is down. Motel bed taxes have fallen steadily fallen since spring, but it is impossible to attribute a reason.

According to Bagger it could be the failing mortgage industry, it may be fuel prices or it may just be shift in what people want out of a vacation.

“You just can't quantify it,” Bagger said.