146,000 Workers in ’95 Owed Jobs, in Part, to Tourism

Tourism spending in Orange County last year supported 146,000 area jobs and provided nearly $240 million in tax revenue to state and local governments.

Those are a few of the findings of the most recent “Economic Impact of the Visitor Industry” report prepared each fall by the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau.

The fall study is a supplement to the all-important spending and visitor totals the bureau releases earlier in the year. We already knew, for example, that 38.7 million people visited Orange County in 1995 and spent a record $5.1 billion. Still, the new report provides a little more insight into those figures.

Turns out that 21.2 million of those 38.7 million visitors came just for the day, while 17.5 million spent at least one night. The average length of stay was 3.4 days. The median household income of visitors to Orange County in 1995 was $56,300. Nearly half brought their children, and families dropped an average of $152 a day here.

As might be expected, 65% of tourists came from the western United States. Only 5% came from the Northeast, while 15% were foreigners. The rest came from the Midwest and South.

According to the report, that $5.1 billion in direct visitor spending had a total economic impact of $12 billion as local businesses circulated those dollars around the county.

The study estimates that every 1% increase in visitor spending adds $120 million to Orange County’s economy and creates $28 million in earned income for its residents.