What on Earth are “tourists” coming to Dallas to tour to the tune of SEVENBILLIONDOLLARS?
Here’s a list of 17 things (they cheat by including Ft. Worth, too), but seriously, “tourists”? Do I count if I do one of these since I don’t live in “Dallas” proper? Hm…
Got me. But during a ~monthlong temp job downtown semi-adjacent to the Sixth Floor Museum I was very nearly shoving tourists aside whenever I stepped outside by the third day. Perhaps that was on account of having gone to said museum almost a dozen times in the early-mid 90s literally every time a relative was in town.
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Not sure how they come up with that number.
Walmart math.
I wonder if they count everyone who flies through DFW (and their airfare) as tourist revenue?
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We are a big city especially when you categorize us as DFW. I think Chicago claims like 3X that as tourism. One of the largest drivers is, Dallas is a Big Expo town, with our massive listings of hotels and event centers. We also have the sports draws with the largest brand in all sport, The Cowboys! We are likely the largest city draw in Texas. I’ve found it funny watching foreign youtube travel channels come to Dallas and find what we consider common place to be magnificent and special to us. We are the example of the idea of Old West Cowboys turned Modern Mecca. Grab your Wrangler, Cowboy Hat, Fast Food BBQ and Iphone to get the full experience.
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This. Cowboys, Rangers, Mavs, Stars (?), SMU football, TCU football, Dallas FC’s all draw “tourists” from outside the area. Concerts at the AAC. Big12 championship game. State Fair. Texas-OU football game. Various conventions. Fort Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Then you have all the out-of-town bachelor/bachelorette parties every weekend.
I would think the B part is easy. How many B’s might be a better question. The area supposedly has something like 78,000 hotel rooms. I think you would be hard pressed to spend less than $100 per day for room, food, transportation. But even at a miserly $100 per day … you only need 35% occupancy to get the first B. Then add more for multiple occupants, activities, better hotels, dining and adult beverages. Having followed 4 grandkids through select basketball programs I can assure you there are a huge number of hotel rooms booked for sports tournaments (basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, etc.) that run every weekend for 6 to 8 months of the year.
Ok, let’s face it… you visit Dallas because it’s a convention center… so restaurants are extra pricey … especially downtown, IF you don’t want to pay big bucks on a taxi… then again… you’re on expenses so you can write it off. You go to a sports game… Hockey, Basketball, Football… where even a lowly hot dog costs $10+… (sorry soccer… you’re just not even a thing…) PLUS the price of admission… SOMEONE has to pay those million dollar player salaries. When I lived in London… I was told that the American Bison was extinct… and the Texas Longhorn was like a Jackalope…just a made up thing ( I know its REAL!). WHAT? You can go to Dallas, TX where the Fuel City in Downtown Dallas has both?! ( The Bison was a WHITE bison so they had to hide it because certain groups considered it sacred.) Point is… you can easily empty your wallet but it doesn’t matter as long as you have your authentic Cowboy boots and Stetson to prove you were in the Dallas Wild, Wild West and survived! Bragging rights alone make it easily worth a few measly hundred/thousands… I believe,“B” for Billions.
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which means NOT “tourism” bucks
but that’s not the tourists in the stadia; it’s mostly TV and such media outlets.
Not so sure companies paying $10’sk for boxes cuts the mustard for “tourism” in my book, either. That’s “advertising/customer relationship”, not tourism (which doesn’t mean that’s how this “study” is getting there).
Ah well, probably splitting hairs. Plus, $7bn on 2022 money is like, $40.00 in 2012 money, so there’s that…
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Dallas’s central location in the country means lots of travelers fly through Dallas and some spend money at the airport, or conventions they attend or sports events or JFK exhibits or hotels etc. You also have to think about Fort Worth, cowtown, where the west begins. Lots of traffic in the stockyards. They also probably total derivative revenue such as the folks that setup the conventions and the other various trickle down revenues resulting from the “tourist” or out-of-towner revenues.
We will never be Paris, France or London, England but $7B is not a drop in the bucket either.
NOT “Dallas”.
DFW, but not Dallas.
Which again, doesn’t mean that’s true for this article/study (which I’m actually finding difficult-er than usual to source - so it might be 100% fiction, for all I know).
Found another bit to the puzzle here which I assume will be paywalled.
Turns out, this is to drum up interest in voting for Prop A in Dallas, to up hotel tax and spend it on improvements tourists might enjoy. It passed.
Visit Dallas is funded by those taxes.
Here’s part of the $7bn twist though, where language matters, and I didn’t READ carefully. That’s a $7.2bn IMPACT. The spending was a bit more than half that ($4.4bn), which makes it a bit less than twice as believable. The impact is judged by guessing about where all else all those dollars will travel in the “Dallas” economy. So I misread that as “tourists are pulling $7.2bn out of their pockets and leaving it in Dallas”, and, in addition to all the other points made here about sports this and Ft. Worth probably being included, there’s the simple fact that I misunderstood the words I read.
Plus, I forgot to factor in what AAC parking costs.
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AAC parking is rubbish, take the Dart train everytime
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I feel like business/conference travel accounts for a lot. I have family in town right now for an event relating to their work.