Visitor Economic Impact Estimates of Garrett County, Maryland

Abstract

It is a major challenge to estimate the total visitation of a destination without gate counts. This study proposes a modified ratio-based approach by which the visitor number and visitor volume at a county level (Garrett County, MD) are estimated using survey information on the sample percentage of a given visitor type antd the actual documentation of visitor counts of that visitor type. It is estimated that the total person-trips for the county are 1,117,744 during the survey period between August 2008 and July 2009 with an estimated total visitor spending being $243.3 million. Visitor economic impact analyses using IMPLAN indicate that visitors of the county have a total economic impact of $347.7 million in sales. The study shows that the county is quite comparable in terms of the total visitor spending with nearby ski resort counties in West Virginia and also competitive against most other counties in the state.