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There are no smokestacks where tourism is manufactured and there are no fields where tourism is harvested. No place at the store where you can find the tourism section. To many onlookers tourism is truly an invisible industry. But tourism is alive and well in the state of Kansas and alive and growing right here in Parsons and Labette County.
Tourism expenditures across the State of Kansas exceed $7 billion annually. $4.2 billion of that comes from core sectors of the industry such as restaurants and hotels with $1.4 billion created through support industries such as agriculture and transportation.
Nearly 167,000 jobs are credited to the tourism industry, representing more than twelve percent of total employment in the state. These jobs create approximately $3.5 billion in wages and salaries.
While these numbers are impressive, we, in Southeast Kansas have our work cut out for us. Of those billions of dollars, the SEK share is only $400 million. We rank at or near the bottom in all the major tourism generating categories including accommodations, entertainment, transportation, dining and shopping.
This isn't solely for lack of attractions, while we may not have the metropolitan centers such as a Kansas City or Wichita, Southeast Kansas offers unrivaled natural beauty and a historically rich tourism product. Our Challenge? To expand the recognition of our area beyond our own borders and invite travelers from across the country to experience what we have come to know as home.
To invite a stranger into your home is not the easiest of things, to accomplish our goals we will need to build a balanced hospitality product, which will provide for the traveler while producing an industry that truly benefits the citizens. This will take time, effort and financial resources that have never before been devoted to the exclusive promotion of tourism.
It will take strategic advertising and marketing to specific travel segments including conferences and small conventions. It will also take continued growth of our core hospitality product not only in the number of hotel rooms we have to offer but more specifically in the amount of meeting and conference space we can dedicate to visiting groups.
But most importantly it will take a community swelling with pride; no one wants to visit a place that is not proud of itself. So I invite you all on this exciting and wonderful ride as we showcase our pride and introduce Parsons and Labette County Kansas to a nation of travelers.
Jim Zaleski
Director of Tourism
Parsons and Greater Labette County
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