Local Economic Impacts

The Wyoming Division of Tourism, in cooperation with the Wyoming Department of Transportation, established the Wyoming Loop Tours Program in the late 1980s. Several segments of existing state highway systems were identified as facilitating the access to specific historic and recreational areas already available for public use. Through additional recognition of these sites, it was envisioned that the visiting public would utilize sites more, thus spending more time in the area with the result of adding to the local economies and positively impacting the overall economy through increased tourism.

Tables 1 and 2 indicate the travel time between locations on each of the two studied loop tours. Travel time may have a relationship to the desire of travelers to stop for services, etc. It was also envisioned by the Wyoming Division of Tourism that visitation to sites included in the Wyoming Loop Tours Program would be enhanced as a result of a four-color publication and highway signing designed to draw attention to the designated recreational highway route. Loop tour brochures were divided geographically between southern and northern loop tours (15). This study included both a northern and southern loop tour. These were the Cheyenne & Oregon Trail Loop Tour and the Big Horn Basin Loop Tour as discussed earlier.

Tourist expenditures are only one of the causes of local economic benefits, if economic benefits are defined as gross increases in local income and wealth due to tourism activity (5). Economic impacts are usually classified as follows:

• direct positive impacts occur as a direct consequence of tourism activity.
• indirect positive impacts occur when the recipients of these direct impacts spend part of their revenue to purchase goods and services necessary for them to supply their activity (travel businesses purchases).
• induced positive impacts represent the consumption expenditures of people receiving income from employment in one of the local tourism industries, i.e., employees spending (3; 4; 5).

Evaluating direct effects of visitor expenditures is rather straightforward when visitor expenditure data and visitor counts have been collected. Applying appropriate tax rates to the tourists' expenditures gives tax revenues attributable to tourism. With regard to jobs supported directly, one easy method is to calculate each sector's payroll as a percentage of sales (this information can be obtained in the County Business Patterns for every county) and to derive the number of jobs in each type of business (3).

The importance of the secondary effects of spending, both indirect and induced effects, should not be overlooked. Some economic activities realize a greater return to the community per dollar spent than others, i.e., the longer the money remains in the local economy, the better. It is particularly relevant to try to identify how a dollar spent by tourists on different items or activities circulates through the local economy (2). What is pertinent is to trace the effects of tourists' spending through the local economy because many of the goods and services purchased by tourists might have a local impact beyond the specific location where the actual spending took place, i.e., "import content." (2).

The input/output technique is only one of the modeling methods available for the practitioner. Other approaches include shift-and-share analyses and location quotients. Rose (11) uses a different approach to measure economic impacts of tourism. Information can be combined from a variety of data sources, federal and state publications, local information, interviews and questionnaires. From this, one follows a process of assumptions and imputations to estimate tourist revenue dollars, tourist income dollars, tourism employment, and tourism tax impact. The superiority of the input/output technique lies in its ability to show the linkages within the economic region (4). The technique also translates the tourism activity in terms of personal income, local jobs, and sales tax collected. Taylor, Fletcher, and Clabaugh (12) developed their input/output model to estimate the total economic impact of tourism - the sum of direct, indirect, and induced impacts in the North Central Wyoming. Four county area data were collected from the Service sector and secondary data. Johnson, Bermiller, and Radtke (7) combined businesses survey data with the U.S. Forest Service's IMPLAN system. This has the disadvantage of being constructed on national assumptions which are often erroneous at the local level.

The U.S. Travel Data Center has developed a Travel Economic Impact Model which provides annual estimates of the impact of the travel industry at the county level for fifteen travel expenditure categories and thirteen types of travel related businesses in terms of business receipts, employment, personal income, and tax collection (14). This, however, does not appear to be usable for Wyoming because this study could not isolate tourism activity specifically resulting from use of the Wyoming Loop Tours.

Since this study involves the use of Wyoming's Loop Tours, it is important to establish an understanding of the planning philosophy behind such a system. In 1990, the Federal Highway Administration included in its publication, "Safety Impacts, Design Standards and Classification Systems for Scenic Byways" a description which appears to fit the philosophy providing guidance to Wyoming's effort in its loop tours program. Essentially, loop tours, like federal scenic byways, are corridors with high natural beauty incorporating cultural and/or historic values. Users of the loop tours are treated to glimpses of Wyoming's unique nature, history, geology, landscape and cultural activities. In addition, public services are necessary to encourage use and enjoyment. Obviously, some "services" are necessary to allow visitors to the loop tour to exchange money for services and goods, thus enhancing the local economies.

Scenic road programs have been in existence for some time. A number of states, such as Utah, Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina and Wyoming have a scenic highway programs under one name or another. As part of this study, all 50 states were surveyed to determine which have programs identified in the same terms as does Wyoming, specifically a "loop" tour embodying the components of a scenic tour route developed to encourage economic development in a specific region. Table 3 identifies those states responding affirmatives and indicates the number of loops.

Most states responded that the loop tour programs are administered in a similar manner to that in Wyoming; cooperation between the Division of Tourism and the Department of Transportation. Of interest, until the formation of this study for the state of Wyoming, only Texas had previously evaluated the effectiveness of its loop tour programs.

Costs and Liabilities of Tourism

Jobs, taxes, etc., that tourism brings to a community, or in a larger sense, to Wyoming, are not without costs such as: 1) added demands on public facilities and services, and 2) operational costs of the tourism industry. The demands of a visiting public are real. There will be an impact on local roads and parking, as one example. There will be a greater need for signs, sewage and trash disposal; additional rest rooms, and for more available water. Public safety, health and welfare become critical to establishing and maintaining a viable "service" atmosphere for visitors. However, these costs and liabilities are not without benefit to local residents as well and should never be underestimated.

For example, tourist attractions historically have become significant only when they became accessible. Today, most centers of tourist travel depend on visitors arriving by private automobile or mass transportation systems. That is the case for the Wyoming Loop Tours. Accommodation for the use of private vehicles is essential; adequate access roads become essential. Disney World was designed with an internal network of transportation services in mind; however, without a major investment by the state of Florida for access highways, the project would have failed. In most situations, however, access exists before the development. In Wyoming, the existing transportation system was utilized to enhance tourism opportunities.

The Methodology of Evaluating Wyoming Loop Tours

A random schedule of site visitation was established. Personal contact was made with each site manager, during which their specific participation was detailed. On the basis of the schedule, site managers or the designated contact person were to interview each visitor upon arrival to the site. As a result of this brief interview, if the visitor was aware of being on the loop tour, or at least was aware the site was on a loop tour, they were asked if they would participate in the study by completing and returning a survey form. The site manager then requested the name and address of the person agreeing to participate. Those names and addresses were collected centrally and once a month questionnaires were mailed to visitors having agreed to participate in the study by responding to the mailed survey (see Appendix). Participants were sought and surveys were collected beginning in July of 1991 through October 1, 1992.