May 07--Total tourism spending in Daviess County jumped $10 million in 2012 to $268.6 million, a new state report said Monday.

That includes indirect spending -- the money spent by hotels, restaurants and attractions to buy more food and goods or hire more people.

But direct spending -- the actual dollars spent by visitors to the community -- was up $6.4 million to $170.9 million, the state said.

"I knew it was going to be up," Karen Miller Porter, executive director of the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said Monday. "But I didn't have any idea it would be that much."

When the Executive Inn Rivermont, western Kentucky's largest hotel closed in June 2008, many feared that Owensboro's tourism industry would die with it.

But state figures show that total tourism spending here in 2007, the last full year the Big E was open, came to $232.2 million.

It's grown by $36.4 million since then.

"We sure have done a lot better than anybody expected," Porter said. "The biggest thing that's helped us has been the return of business travel. That's been filling up hotels during the week. Our sports tournaments and festivals have brought in more people and, of course, the construction of the new hospital put a lot of construction workers in hotels for several months."

She said the CVB's budget, which comes from a 3 percent tax on room rentals, is on track to hit $470,000 in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

That's up from $455,000 last year.

Next year, the new downtown convention center and the 150-room Hampton Inn & Suites will be open on the riverfront.

"I really hope next year will be even better," said Porter, who retires May 31 from the CVB. "I think the curiosity factor will bring a lot of people to Owensboro to see the convention center and be able to stay in a hotel on the river again."

The nine-county Bluegrass, Blues & Barbecue region, which includes Daviess County, saw a 4.4 percent increase in direct spending in 2012 -- to $309.9 million. That was the fifth-highest increase among the nine regions.

Direct spending in Hancock County grew from $1.2 million to $1.9 million; McLean, from $1.3 million to $2.1 million; Muhlenberg, from $22.3 million to $34.9 million; and Ohio, from $6.4 million to 10.1 million.

Statewide, direct spending increased 4.4 percent to $7.8 million.

"This is great news for our tourism industry in Kentucky," Marcheta Sparrow, secretary of the Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet, said in a news release. "We want to build on these successes and keep adding more attractions and jobs for Kentuckians."

She cited the growth of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, which reported a record 509,292 visitors in 2012 -- an increase of 15 percent from the previous year.

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is a series of distilleries that allow guests to see how bourbon is made.

Daviess County has been capitalizing on its bourbon heritage.

There's a display of bourbon memorabilia at the CVB. The Miller House boasts one of the largest bourbon bars in the world. And the Owensboro Bourbon Society is planning its second annual bourbon festival for the fall.

State officials say the spending estimates are based on such things as tax receipts, surveys and research at hotels, restaurants, campgrounds and attractions across the state.

The latest survey says that tourism was responsible for 174,006 jobs in Kentucky in 2012 -- an increase of 4,078 jobs from the previous year.

Those jobs generated more than $2.7 billion in wages for Kentucky workers, an increase of nearly $117 million from the previous year, the survey found.

It added that tourism generated $1.227 billion in tax revenues for local and state governments in 2012, an increase from $1.223 billion in 2011.

Keith Lawrence, 691-7301, [email protected]

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