Tourism stimulates local economies by creating jobs, increasing spending in businesses and generating tax revenues that can fund public services. Experience Grand Rapids engaged global research firm Tourism Economics to determine just how much tourism contribute to the overall economy of Kent County. Their findings reveal the true economic impact of local tourism – and demonstrate the value in our continuing efforts to attract even more visitors to the destination.
Grand Rapids sets new tourism record with 22.3 Million visitors and $2 Billion in visitor spending in 2024.
Vistor Spending in Local Businesses
Tourism Economics analyzed a variety of resources to develop a full picture of visitor spending in 2024. They calculated that 22.3 million visitors spent $2.0 billion in Kent County businesses that year. Food and beverage purchases accounted for 26.5% of all visitor spending, followed by transportation (22.7%), lodging (20.9%) retail (16.8%) and recreation/entertainment (13.1%). While visitor volume increased by a healthy 4.4% from 2023 to 2024, visitor spending was even more robust, rising by 6.1%.
Tourism has a ripple effect in the local economy, multiplying the dollars visitors spend directly in restaurants, hotels, attractions and other businesses. Tourism businesses purchase goods from other local businesses to support their operations. For example, a restaurant might buy cleaning supplies from a local vendor. This is an indirect effect of visitor spending. Restaurant employees use their salaries to pay for local goods and services like groceries and utilities. This is an induced effect of visitor spending.
The $2.0 billion visitors spent here in 2024 generated an additional $0.8 billion in indirect sales and $0.6 million in induced sales for a total economic impact of $3.5 billion.
Visitor-Supported Jobs
Visitor-related activities directly supported 18,164 jobs in 2024, a 4.1% increase from 2023. Direct tourism jobs represented 3.3% of all jobs in Kent County. An additional 9,758 jobs were supported by the indirect and induced effects of visitor activity, bringing the total employment impact of visitor spending to 27,922 jobs. That’s 1 of every 19 jobs in the region.
Wages and salaries earned by people working in these jobs totaled $1.2 billion – $667.3 million in direct personal income plus $310.2 million in indirect personal income plus $215.2 million in induced personal income.
Visitor-Generated Taxes
Finally, visitor activity generated $446.1 million in government revenues in 2024, with 54% of it ($242.9 million) going to state and local coffers. Each household in Kent County would have to be taxed an additional $953 to replace these visitor-generated taxes.
It’s clear that tourism is a healthy and growing part of our local economy. We invite you to review the Tourism Economics report for more details, including how 2024 compared to previous years. You might also be interested in our annually updated Understanding the Grand Rapids Visitor article, which explores when, why and from where our visitors come.
